Honey and Venom
by James Fair
Summary: Voldemort creates a new spell believing it will destroy Harry permanently, however ends up unintentionally sending him back in time. Harry finds himself at Hogwarts in his parents time where he struggles to find his way home. Read and Review, CHAPTER FIFTEEN UP! I update really quickly, so follow and review :)
1. The Battle

Wow, it's kind of hard to believe I'm back. I started writing on here when I was in sixth grade and now I'm in my second year of college and somehow I'm back. I've been rereading through my old story and, well, it's pretty awful. So, I'm rewriting it. No, I'm not giving the link to the old one. It's that bad.

Just enjoy the new one. Reviews would be lovely.

It was cold. The sun had gone down what seemed like days ago and the pervasive night swarmed throughout the grounds of Hogwarts. It was almost summer, Harry thought. And it was cold.

Cold was an understatement. The air was not crisp, or chilly - it was void of anything. Harry blinked and lifted his head a little. Hogwarts grounds had always been so warm and full of life, even in the middle of December when so many students went home to their families. Now, even with the fire that was eating away at the forest and Hagrid's hut and the crowds of cloaked figures screaming and cursing, the grounds felt empty. His head felt empty, and yet the thoughts - his thoughts? someone else's? - buzzed in circles and tangled themselves. Harry groaned and shook his head trying to jog them apart.

Harry shakily propped himself on his elbows as a thunderous explosion shook the ground. He felt the ground, searching for something - what was it? His head hurt, his thoughts weren't cohesive. His hand touched something thin and metal - his glasses. Did he need glasses?

A spell whizzed past his head, singeing the tips of his hair. Where had that come from? What was it?

"Harry!" Something hard but warm slammed against Harry, pushing him flat to the ground. Another explosion.

The glasses were forced over his face hastily - did he need glasses? - and the frantic voice came again.

"What's wrong? Where does it hurt?" The brown haze asked. "Harry? Harry!"

Harry groaned, the voice would not stop and he did not know the answers. He didn't know if anything hurt. He didn't know what was wrong.

"Harry!" It insisted again. Harry pushed the blur away.

"I don't know," Harry mumbled as he tried to focus his eyes on the brown thing - or anything.

"Do you know who I am, Harry? Do you know where you are?" Harry groaned at the questions.

"Are you really confused?"

"Yes!" Harry blurted out. The blur moved away, making Harry shiver slightly. He missed the warmth. The ground was so cold.

"_Clarus!_" Hermione swam into view. She lowered her wand and crouched back down next to him. "Harry, are you ok?"

"Yeah," Harry took her hand and the two stood up. Everything came rushing back. The vision, the attack, the war occurring before him. He was on the edge of the Forbidden Forest behind a particularly thick tree. He couldn't remember how he got there. Hermione handed him back his wand.

"Someone must have gotten you with a Confundus Charm," Hermione held her glowing wand close to Harry's face, examining his eyes. "I don't know how long you were down for but it must have been a stray spell because no one seemed to have seen you go down. Everyone's been looking for you."

"Where's Ron?" Harry asked. Hermione just shook her head.

"The last time I saw anyone was when Sirius ran up and asked if I had seen you. I told him I'd come out here, he's still in the castle I think." Harry sighed. He slowly glanced from behind the tree. Flashes were evident across the grounds, back and forth in all directions. He looked back at Hermione who reached down and grasped his hand firmly. The gold engagement ring dug into his hand. Harry flinched.

"I'm sure everyone is ok, Har." She offered. He simply nodded, looking back across the lake lit by the barrage of fatal colors. He let go.

"Is he here?" Harry asked, the words catching in his throat.

"No one's seen him." Hermione answered quietly.

"Ok. Let's move back towards the castle and find the others. They might know something we don't." Hermione nodded and lifted her wand. Together, the two began feeling around the edge of the forest. Most of the fighting was closer to the castle, so at their distance they were fairly safe. It would be more of a problem getting back in than moving near the woods, but they kept behind the trees just in case. A loud crack rattled the air, causing the two to jump and freeze. They watched as a stream of black smoke poured from the sky and hit the ground. Cackling echoed.

"Never mind, Hermione." Harry muttered, gripping his wand a little tighter. "I think we've found him." Hermione swallowed hard. Carefully but quickly the two began to feel there way along the forest's edge again.

"_Morsmordre!" _They whipped their heads back at the all too familiar curse. A green, glowing cloud sculpted itself smoothly into a skull, a fierce snake wrapping itself around and through it. The cloud hissed and cracked.

"Find him!" Voldemort shouted. "Search everywhere!" The small fights continued but it was evident that many Deatheaters were abandoning their original duels in favor of finding Harry.

"C'mon, Hermione, move!" Harry pushed his friend forward as they took off into a sprint through the woods. They were getting close to the castle, it would only take a few more strides before there was a clear path straight to one of the heavy wooden doors.

"Wait," Harry called reaching out and stopping Hermione. "You go in alone, go find Sirius. Make sure he knows what's going on-"

"Harry I don't think we should split up-"

"I'm going to check out here and make sure Ron or anyone else isn't still outside, we don't want to leave anyone behind if Dumbledore decides we need to leave." Harry continued. Hermione shook her head.

"Don't argue Hermione," Harry said firmly, pushing away his emotions in hopes that bravery would replace them. "Please." She paused before nodding.

"Promise you'll come back." Hermione looked at him, her eyes fixed on his. "Promise you won't do something foolish. Promise you will meet us all back inside the castle, in Dumbledore's office. Promise."

"I will." He hoped he sounded more confident than he felt. "Make sure you don't break those promises either. I expect to see you there too." She nodded, tears building up in the corners of her eyes. Suddenly, she threw her arms around him and pulled him into a tight hug. Harry stiffened. She let go and slowly backed away before twisting around and continuing towards the castle.

Harry watched as she stopped at the edge of the forest and then bolted towards the castle and through the doors. At least she was inside, though for all Harry knew it could be even worse in there than it was out in the open. He looked around the grounds at the fire and flashes of light. He wasn't prepared for this.

Harry began walking backwards into the woods still in deep thought and straight into something. Or someone.

He leaped backwards and drew in a sharp breath.

"I knew I'd find you, Harry." Voldemort grinned, revealing yellow teeth from between thin lips.

Harry stood frozen for a second and then jumped to his right behind a tree, shouting "_Expelliarmus!". _Voldemort blocked the spell with ease.

"There's no point in hiding, Harry." Voldemort continued to sneer. "No point at all." Harry held his breath as his mind raced.

"You know, I've been learning some new tricks recently, Harry." He heard Voldemort call. "Some interesting new spells. I know you seem to keep escaping the conventional killing curse, but I thought maybe you wouldn't be so lucky with something no one else has ever faced before..." Harry's heart began to beat faster, his eyes widened and darted from left to right searching for some kind of path to safely escape or at least give him some leverage.

"So..." Voldemort drawled. He sounded a few meters away but suddenly the next words sounded like they were being whispered straight into his ear: "Let's try it out then shall we?"

Harry leapt away from the trunk and ran as fast as he could.

"_Aliasadfontes!_" A beam of green light slammed into Harry's back, sending him crashing forward into the rough dirt. He could hear Voldemort cackling, but he could not open his eyes or move at all. Suddenly, he heard Voldemort's voice echoing through the grounds:

"It's over, Dumbledore. Your hero is gone." Harry tried to move, to curse the evil man or at least prove to everyone that it wasn't over, but he felt like his body had become fused solid rock. The wind began to pick up around him, he heard whistling in his ears. Through his eyelids Harry saw the green light again. Was he dead?

He felt the world disappear from beneath his body. He tumbled through the air before abruptly slamming against the ground and losing consciousness.

Well there it is. First time writing something in ages. Let me know how good or awful this sounds?


	2. Lost?

Hey guys! thanks for those who reviewed, I honestly didn't expect to even get one so getting two meant a lot to me. Someone was asking me about how I had marked the story as "Romance" but hadn't actually listed what ships I was going to do - I kind of did this on purpose because I'm not sure which ones are really going to be present, though I'll let all of you know now that they're normal ships (GinnyxHarry, HermionexRon, JamesxLily). Like I said, don't know which ones I will actually include in the story yet, I really have no idea where I'm going with this so bare with me! It may be more interesting that way...

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Hermione took a deep breath. The door was so close but the bare grounds made her feel vulnerable. Anything could happen in the twenty seconds it would take her to run across the field. Breath out. Breath in. She coached herself, gripping the tree trunk tightly making her knuckles go white. Breath out. Breath in. Run.

Once she started, she knew should couldn't stop. Her feet thumped across the dry ground in time with her heart. She could hear the Dark Mark still hissing above her head, it rattled about in her mind. The sprint from the trees to the side door felt far longer than it actually was, and when she reached the door she pressed down on the metal handle praying with all her might that it would open with easy. It did.

She slipped inside the door, closing it as quickly as she had opened it, and pressed her back against it. The building shook with another explosion, this one seemed to come from inside. Hermione shivered. The building was dark and silent, unlike the grounds outside. She almost wished she hadn't come in. The candles that normally lined the halls had all gone out. She felt her heart sink as she realized the place she had grown up was not how she had left it.

A shiver ran down her spine once more. Hermione swallowed hard. She knew Voldemort had gained control of the Dementors but she hadn't realized that he had brought them during the attack. She should have known better.

Hermione lifted her wand and muttered, "_Expecto Patronum_", A silver otter swam from the tip of her wand and glistened by her feet, twisting about. Hermione gave a weak smile, feeling slightly warmer now.

"_Lumos_". The halls looked as barren as they felt. There didn't seem to be too much evidence of a fight in this area of the castle, but a pile of rubble where a statue had once stood let her know there had been.

Hermione closed her eyes and breathed out slowly. She had to think clearly. She had to think calmly.

Hermione took a step forward, the otter swimming along with as she went slowly walking down the halls, listening intently for any evidence of anyone approaching. She rounded a corner cautiously, holding her wand forward. She cursed quietly, seeing another destroyed statue, one which had activated a secret passage towards the third floor. Anything to get her out of the main halls and somewhere else away from the cold.

She quickly tried fixing the statue but the pieces only picked themselves up and then put themselves down again. It would probably take more complex magic to repair something like that. She moved onward, sliding against the cold stone walls. Another thunderous bang shook the building. There had to be a fight going on somewhere, but where? And should she avoid it or try and find it?

Hermione sighed and shook her head. She pushed open another door, leading her towards the main staircases. She stood in silence as they shifted into place. She then climbed, the otter still drifting around her feet. She stepped onto another staircase and moved further upwards.

Suddenly, there door to the third floor passage burst open and two figures came wrestling through. One tried to throw the other off the edge of the platform that the staircase was slowly approaching. Hermione saw a flash of red hair as the figure shoved the black figure away from him. The second man toppled backwards, grabbing ahold of the redheads leg and pulling him down with him.

"RON!" Hermione screamed running up the rest of the steps. Without thinking, she dove across the gap between the stairs and the platform, slamming into Ron and shoving him back onto the platform. The two scrambled further onto the platform as the Death Eater lost his grasp on Ron's leg and screamed as he plummeted into the darkness.

The two panted laying on the ground for a second before Hermione reached over and latched onto Ron, relief sweeping over her.

"Are you ok?" She asked. Ron groaned.

"'M alright, I'm going to get a bruise from that stunt though." Hermione just shook her head and pulled him back towards her. "Where's Harry?"

Before she could answer, shouts echoed from the passage making both of them look up.

"What's going on in there?" Hermione whispered. "Where are the others?"

"Fred and George are over there." Ron stood up shakily before offering her his hand. "C'mon, we can't leave them alone." They were just about to enter the passage, wands raised and both feeling a bit better now that they weren't fighting alone, when a chilling cackling filled the air.

"_It's over Dumbledore." _Voldemorts voice made their blood freeze. "_Your hero was gone_."

Hermione covered her mouth, her eyes growing wide. Ron paled. Their eyes darted to the passage entrance as the twins rushed out of the gloom. They all looked at each other in panic.

"He's lying." Ron said shaking his head. "Harry's fine, he's trying to trick us."

"Where is he?" Fred asked. "Is he safe?"

Hermione lowered her gaze.

"I saw him about fifteen minutes ago." She mumbled, fear making her words barely coherent.

"Where was he?" Ron interrupted impatiently, his voice louder than necessary. "We have to find him, where is he!"

"I-I left him outside. He said he was going to look for anyone else and meet at Dumbledores-"

"C'mon!" Ron shouted, already running past the twins and towards the back staircase. The other three followed close behind.

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Through his eyelids, Harry saw red. Fire. He tried to push open his eyelids but everything was stiff. Had Voldemort paralyzed him? It was hot and uncomfortable. His whole body ached. Progressively, Harry could feel his fingertips against smooth long strands of - grass?

"_At least I'm not in Hell_." Harry thought. Maybe he hadn't gone anywhere. Maybe Voldemort had left his body behind thinking he was dead and now if he could force his eyes open he would see a broken Hogwarts and the grounds still up in flames.

Harry tightened his grasp on the blades of grass. With much effort, he opened his eyes. Hogwarts. He hadn't gone anywhere. But there were no flames, just a rising sun peaking over the tree tops. In fact, there were no signs of the attack anywhere.

Harry frowned. The fields were not just green, but luscious and perfectly cut. Sculpted bushes framed the doors into the undamaged castle. How long had he been lying on the ground, forgotten?

He continued to slowly gain back strength, working his way up to a kneeling position before shakily getting on his feet, leaning against a tree for support. Harry's eyes darted to one of the side doors of Hogwarts as a figure exited the castle and began walking down the path to the lake. His eyes widened.

Harry quickly moved behind the tree, gripping the bark tightly. He peaked around the tree. He watched himself walk down the dirt path, hands in his pockets. Harry felt a wave of deja vu from third year and his experiences with the Time Turner. What had Voldemort's spell really done? What use was there to sending Harry back a few years? What was his plan?

Harry furrowed his eyebrows in thought as he watched himself crouch down by the lake and open his bag. What had he been doing that day? Was there some kind of herbology assignment that he had forgotten to do involving collecting magical plants? He couldn't remember any such thing.

The water rippled, tentacles slowly creeping up and breaking the surface. Maybe it had something to with Care of Magical Creatures? The squid held out its tentacles expectantly as the second Harry fished around in his bag and pulled out what looked like leftovers from the Great Hall.

Harry watched himself shout something and wait. The squid paused and then disappeared under the water. A few seconds later it shot up into the air and flipped backwards before splashing backwards. The boy threw a plate full of food up towards the outstretched tentacles.

Harry watched the boy laugh and through another plate up into the air. This couldn't be himself, he had no memory of ever training the squid, he was sure of this. Had Voldemort sent him into the future? Was he even alive? Harry pinched his arm uncertainly.

"James!" Harry looked up as another figure appeared at the door. Harry couldn't have heard that correctly.

The boy turned around as well and shouted something back, but Harry couldn't hear what.

"Yeah, yeah that's great, c'mon!" The figure responded. "I've got something even better!"

Harry watched in shock as the boy pulled his bag back onto his shoulder before racing up the hill towards the castle. He turned away. He could hear his hear thumping.

It was his dad.

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There you go guys. Let me know what you think. Review and follow, I'll try to update as much as I can!


	3. Lost!

Hey everyone! sorry for the delay in updating, I had a ton of midterms and spent the entire week studying and working so I haven't just been procrastinating for no reason! Anyways, here you go…

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Harry's mind was blank. He couldn't wrap his mind around anything. No matter how much he tried, each thought slipped away from him like water. His father was alive. But he was still a student at Hogwarts. Harry had seemingly somehow gone back in time.

"That's impossible." Harry muttered ruffling his hair in frustration. Maybe he had been caught in a memory, like a pensieve. That had to be more likely than actually having gone back in time. Perhaps Voldemort had created some kind of spell version of the strange substance.

It suddenly struck him that if he were in some kind of pensieve-like experience, that meant no one could see him or hear him. Harry inched around the edge of the forest debating whether he should risk going into the building or not. After much thought, Harry concluded that he couldn't simply stand outside forever and he had to go in eventually.

Harry wandered over to the lake and looked at his reflection. He was taken aback by the dirty, bruised reflection that looked back at him. He dipped his hands in the water and rinsed his face quickly. It didn't help much - his hair stuck out in matted angles and the cuts and bruises just showed up even more now. Harry racked his mind for some kind of healing special or even just some way to disguise himself as he reached into his pocket for his -

"_Shit!_" Harry swore fumbling to search all of his pockets, but he knew he had been holding it before he had been hit by the spell, he had probably let go of it before the spell had effect. Now what?

Harry groaned. Hermione had enchanted his clock to have an infinitely deep pocket much like her bag, though he hadn't been as clever as her to fill it with emergency essentials. She had even recommended it, and had given him some energy and blood replenishing potions, which he had carelessly left the majority of in his trunk.

Along with only three small corked bottles of potions brewed by his friend, Harry had been sure to keep his invisibility cloak and Gryffindor's sword with him in the cloak pocket. He had also stuffed a few things in their absentmindedly as he had collected them including a few random photographs of him and his friends, article clippings from the _Daily Prophet_, and some of Fred and George's joke candy and pranks.

Suddenly, Harry had an idea. Fred and George had been working on a new type of sweet that they had called "Camo-Candy." They were little colorful chewable tablets which changed your appearance slightly. Disguise The twins were still working on them, but they had developed a few including one that gave the person bright red hair and freckles ("Wearable-Weasley" they had joked) and another that turned the person's hair blonde and shiny, presumably to mimic a certain Slytherin (they had referred to it as a "Ferret Face").

If people could in fact see him, it would be foolish to walk into the building looking exactly like his father. He paused before choosing one of the yellow tablets. He didn't think he's look very good with red hair, but then he might resemble his mother too much as well. Blonde would have to do. Harry watched as his reflection's hair shifted smoothly from black to bleached blonde. It flattened itself against his head and his skin seemed to go a few shades paler, which did not help in hiding the bruises.

Harry dunked the top of his head into the lake water, somewhat effectively getting his hair to be less greased back. He dried his hair on the corner of his clock before standing up. Should he bother wearing the invisibility cloak? He paused before swinging it over his head. Yes, it was probably better to walk through the castle unnoticed.

Despite not knowing what he was going to say or what he was going to do afterwards, Harry knew who he had to talk to. Dumbledore.

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Ron, Hermione, and the twins dashed through the corridor and pushed open the heavy doors of the to the main entrance hall. Hundreds of students were gathered, some crying, many terrified. Teachers continued to usher them further into the Great Hall but many were frozen in shock and wouldn't budge.

The four friends shoved their way through the crowd towards a tired Professor McGonagall. Her hair, normally in a neat knot in the back of her head, was disheveled and her hat was askew. Her eyes darted towards them as they continued to rush over.

"Mr. Weasley, Ms. Granger, go into the Great Hall!" She said as she hurried another first year away from the doors that lead outside.

"Where's Dumbledore, where's Harry?" Ron shouted. She looked at him with wide eyes. The wise witch couldn't respond. She opened and closed her mouth before shaking her head.

"Do not ignore me, Mr. Weasley, I am your professor, now go into the Great Hall."

"We need to find Harry, Professor." Hermione squeaked nervously, she did not like defying teachers but she wasn't going to budge. "Did you hear Voldemort?"

"Yes." Professor McGonagall answered shortly.

"We can't stand around," Ron said impatiently. "Please let us go outside, that's where Dumbledore is, isn't he? That's where You-Know-Who and Harry are, right?"

Professor McGonagall didn't answer. Ron didn't wait for a response. He pushed straight past the teacher, ignoring her protests as he pushed open the doors.

The night was bright with fire. The Forbidden Forest was engulfed in magical flames that several members of the Order were trying to extinguish but were having little success. There were many small groups still dueling across the grounds, but a central fight was occurring between Dumbledore and Voldemort.

"Getting tired, old man?" Voldemort cackled as he swooped right, dodging one of Dumbledore's spells.

"Not at all, Tom." Dumbledore muttered back as he focused his energy into the complex incantations.

"He cried you know," Voldemort said with mirth. "Your great hero, your Chosen One, he cried like the coward he was, he begged me to spare him."

Dumbledore didn't respond, he just continued to fight. Ron began to run down the stone steps towards the fight, Hermione and the twins following close behind. They hadn't gotten very far when Voldemort shouted,

"Don't believe me? Here!" He took something from his cloak and tossed it towards Dumbledore. Voldemort cackled as he lifted his arms and then brought them down in one quick motion. The wind rushed across the grounds, pushing all of the Death Eaters and Order members as well as the Gryffindors over. By the time the gust had died down, Voldemort was gone. Death Eaters scattered, quickly disapparating. Others attempted to escape but members of the Order grabbed them or hexed them before they could.

Dumbledore stood slowly and walked forward. He bent down and reached into the grass. It was Harry's wand.

He turned, and from a distance saw Ron, Hermione, and the twins looking back at him. He looked away before disapparating as well.

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There you go guys! Read and REVIEW please I love reviews they make me feel so happy and like people are actually interested in my story. If I get lots of reviews I'll update even sooner! In fact, I'll start the next chapter right now! Sooooo GO! xo


	4. Suspicions

Thanks for the reviews, keep them coming it makes me smile :)

ALSO: just so you know I am probably changing the title of this story so don't be confused if you go looking for it and it's a different name. This is because I'm going to start a new story which is far more deserving of the title. This is a great opportunity to favorite and follow either my account or this story!

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Slowly, the grand oak door of the entrance hall creaked open. It remained ajar for a few seconds before once more swaying closed. There was a faint tap of feet against stone the echoed in the entrance. Voices rose from the Great Hall, but there were only a few. It must be fairly early still.

Harry climbed the first set of stairs underneath his invisibility cloak, and then turned down the hall, almost immediately walking into a group of students. Harry quickly backed up and pressed himself against the wall. His eyes widened as he realized who it was.

"So, Moony, about that charms paper—" a tall, handsome boy grinned as he nudged a slightly shorter, sandy-haired boy next to him.

"No, Sirius."

"No what?"

"No, I am not writing for you."

"What about—"

"No, I'm not letting you copy either."

"James—"

"No."

"C'mon, I can't ask Peter, he's barely been paying attention in class either."

The trio turned a corner, and Harry could no longer hear their conversation. Harry so desperately wanted to follow them and hear more, especially from his father, but he resisted the urge. After he spoke to Dumbledore he could really talk to him.

Harry forced himself to continue walking in the opposite direction of the Marauders, hoping this wouldn't be the last time he saw them.

Eventually, Harry reached Dumbledore's office. The same magnificent white statue stood guarding the entrance. Now what? Harry leaned against the wall, waiting. There wasn't much else to do. He could break into the office by guessing the password, but Dumbledore would likely be at least somewhat taken aback by a stranger standing by his desk.

Harry tugged the cloak off his head and stuffed it back into his pocket. He didn't want to just suddenly pop out of nowhere when Dumbledore approached, he needed to seem as normal as possible.

Just as Harry's legs began to ache from standing still for so long, a familiar sharp click of heels echoed down the halls. Harry looked up to see a younger version of his head of house walking purposefully down the hall. She didn't look at him at first. Harry's hurt sunk a little.

'_It is like a pensieve,'_ he thought gloomly_. _He sadly watched as she swept down the hall, but as she neared him her eyes finally focused on him.

"What are you doing here?" Professor McGonagall asked sharply.

"I'm, uhm…" Harry didn't know what to say. Should he make something up? Should he tell the truth?

The professor raised an eyebrow.

"What house are you in?"

"H-House?" Harry blurted out nervously. She frowned.

"Are you feeling alright?" She looked at his battered face. "Have you been fighting? Perhaps we should go to the hospital wing…"

"Dumbledore!" Harry stated bluntly. He cleared his throat. "I need to see Dumbledore."

Professor McGonogall eyed him closely.

"The Headmaster is down at breakfast currently, I would recommend speaking with him later this evening as he is very busy — "

"This is important." Harry interrupted. McGonagall frowned.

"What is so important that it can't wait until later today?"

"I, I don't know." Harry shook his head looking down. He should have come up with a story before coming into the castle.

"I think…" McGonagall said slowly, looking him up and down. "You should go to the hospital wing. I will ask Dumbledore if he can come visit you there, but I think the school nurse needs to look you over."

Harry followed the professor without protest, glad that someone else had made a decision about what to do next.

McGonagall led him all the way from Dumbledore's office to the hospital wing as promised. The walk was a familiar one. Nothing had really changed, though he noticed that some paintings were not hung up anywhere and probably had yet to be painted.

She pushed open the door to the hospital wing and waved him inside where Harry was greeted by a friendly witch.

"What seems to be the problem, dear?" She asked leading him to a bed, which he sat down on the corner of.

"I think he got into fight," McGonagall answered for him. "He doesn't seem to know very much, he couldn't even tell me what house he was in."

"Well, that's strange now, isn't it?" The witch pulled out her wand and began waving it around Harry, presumably attempting to assess his injuries.

"What's your name, dear?"

"Harry." Harry answered without thinking. Should he have said something else?

"And what house are you in, Harry?"

"I don't know." Playing off of this forgetting everything had happened thing was all he had going for him.

"Hm, is it Gryffindor? Or Ravenclaw?" She encouraged.

"I don't know."

The witch frowned.

"Well, Minerva, there doesn't seem to be a lot wrong with him that I can pick up, I'm afraid. Apart from the cuts and bruises I can't find anything." The witch sighed.

"Harry, did you eat or drink anything strange today?"

"I-I don't — maybe?" Harry answered uncertainly. The witch turned back to McGonagall.

"The only thing I can think of right now is he somehow took some kind of forgetfulness potion, maybe someone was pranking him. It was probably those ridiculous boys from your house. Mr. Snape is back in here again because of them, you know."

"Again…" McGonagall growled. The witch pulled back the current next to Harry. He caught a glimpse of a green-skinned boy with frizzy hair. McGonagall quickly stepped forward blocking his view and the witch closed the curtain behind her. He could here quiet muttering, but couldn't make out any of the conversation as the witch continued to create small talk as if she was trying to jolt his memory.

"What year are you?"

"Seven." There was no point in lying about that, they could tell by how old he looked.

"Oh, I see, and what's your favorite class?"

"I, I can't remember."

The witch smiled.

"Don't worry dear, it'll all come back. My name is Madam Thompson; if you need anything, just call."

"I need to see Dumbledore." Harry responded hopefully.

"Well, he's a very busy man, but I can call his office and see if he's available. You just relax now, while I look up some potions to see if I can find anything to help you feel better."

Madam Thompson pulled back the curtain slightly, not enough for Harry to see this time.

"Mr. Snape, there's another boy here in the infirmary, would you maybe like me to open this curtain up so you to can chat?" Harry didn't hear a response, but he assumed Snape had shook his head no because the witch sighed and instead spoke to McGonagall next.

"Minerva, I still haven't been able to figure out quite what's wrong with Harry, but he said something about wanting to talk to Professor Dumbledore."

"Yes, I know." Harry heard McGonagall respond on the other side of the curtain. "It was the only detail I could get out of him."

"Well, it might be a good idea to bring him down, I don't think we're going to get much farther without him unless I can figure out exactly what potion he consumed." The witch smiled at Harry as she closed the curtain again before leaving his bedside and heading into her office.

"Get well soon, Severus." McGonagall came back through the curtain.

"You too, Harry." She said curtly before leaving the ward.

Harry sat for a few seconds in silence before taking off his shoes and reclining onto his bed. He hadn't realized just how tired he was until his head touched the pillow. Within only a few minutes, he was fast asleep.

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"Harry…" A hand gently shook Harry's shoulder. His eyes fluttered open and focused on the witch in front of him. Madam Thompson smiled warmly.

"I have someone I'm sure you will be happy to see."

Harry looked up and immediately sat up in bed. Dumbledore stood at the end of his bed in splendid dark purple robes. Madam Thompson smiled again before conjuring up curtains around his bed and walking away.

"Hello, Harry." Dumbledore's eyes twinkled. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm alright, sir." Harry answered honestly.

"I heard that you wanted to see me?"

"Yes, sir, you see…" Harry paused for a second. "I-I don't know what happened exactly sir but… I wasn't here and then… I was."

"What do you mean?" Dumbledore said puzzled.

"I don't remember, sir. I just… woke up next to the lake."

"Hmm…" Dumbledore muttered thoughtfully. "This is a very peculiar situation, Harry. You see, before coming down to see you, I checked the school records to see your past grades, what house you were in and such. And it was so strange because there were no records there at all."

"None, sir?"

"None at all." Dumbledore frowned. "Not a single record matched."

Harry looked down at his sheets, unsure what to say. Should he tell him that he was from the future and it made perfect sense that there was no record of him attending the school yet?

"However, despite there not being any record of you attending here previously, perhaps you were educated elsewhere? Madam Thompson told me that you had said you were a seventh year."

Harry shook his head. "I'm not sure, sir."

"Harry, could you hold out you left forearm please?" Harry rolled up his sleeve and exposed more bruises. Dumbledore took out his wand and muttered unfamiliar spells. Nothing happened.

"Well then," Dumbledore said, lowering his wand. "I think the best course of action is to keep you here for now."

Harry's eyes lit up in excitement. He could meet his father.

"And it seems also best to have you continue your education here until we find out where you really are supposed to be. Of course this means you must be placed in a house." Dumbledore summed the Sorting Hat and placed it on his head.

"_Hmm… Quite a mind…_" The Sorting Hat muttered into Harry's ear. "_Quite a _cunning_ mind to be exact… Intelligent, but not right for Ravenclaw… Perhaps Slytherin?_"

Once more Harry found himself faced the possibility of his rival house. He was about to open his mouth to protest when the Sorting Hat interrupted.

"_Ah, but we have already been down this road haven't we?_" Harry froze.

"_Good luck, Mr. Potter_." the Hat whispered before shouting "GRYFFINDOR!"

"Congratulations, Harry." Dumbledore said warmly. "We will get you some new robes soon, though I won't have you moved into your dormitory for a few days. I think it would be best for you to stay in the infirmary until you have recovered better. I don't think you should join classes just yet either."

"Uhm, sir," Harry said. "I haven't got a wand. I don't know what happened to it."

"Well, don't worry about that." Dumbledore's eyes twinkled. "I will have someone take you to Diagon Alley, I'm sure you are in need of some other supplies as well."

"I, er, don't have much money on me either…" Harry said quietly.

"Don't worry, Harry. We will take care of it."

Harry felt rather guilty as the Headmaster wished him well and left his bedside.

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Professor McGonagall looked up from her parchment as she heard a knock on her door.

"Come in." She called. Dumbledore stepped through into her office and closed the door behind him.

"Good afternoon, Minerva. I have some news about the boy you found outside of my office this morning."

"Were you able to find out who he was?" Professor McGonagall asked.

"No, he doesn't seem to have ever been here before. There are no records of him ever being a student here or even setting foot in the building, yet he knew where my office was." Dumbledore said stroking his long greying beard.

"Do you think he's a Death Eater?" Professor McGonagall asked seriously.

"No… I honestly don't," Dumbledore replied. "I checked his arm and there was no mark."

"Did you interrogate him under a truth serum?"

"I don't think the world hasn't gotten to the point where we can't trust anyone, Minerva. The boy does not come across to me as someone associated with dark magic. Besides, he was placed in your house."

Professor McGonagall looked a little taken aback by this, but nodded nonetheless.

"Do not worry, I'm not throwing precaution to the wind either. I am keeping him in the hospital wing for a few day under Guinivere's watch. Hopefully she might find what is disturbing his memory."

"I still think he might be lying…" Professor McGonagall muttered looking down. "His memory is probably just fine…"

"Let us have some trust in Harry until he has done something to prove us otherwise." Dumbledore looked at her knowingly. She nodded shortly.

"I will leave you to your grading, I will see you at dinner."

Dumbledore left swiftly, the door closing quietly behind him.

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Review please!


	5. More Like Home

Hello again :) Here's the next chapter, ignore my horrible Hagrid accenting:

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Harry remained in the hospital wing for several days. He learned that he had arrived on a Thursday and by Sunday evening he was told that he would be starting classes the next day. When Harry mentioned still not having been to Diagon Alley yet, he was told that Dumbledore had simply sent someone to get his supplies for him. Harry was extremely taken aback when a young Rubeus Hagrid came thundering into the room with a warm smile on his face, arms full of supplies including a new trunk, robes, books, and a cauldron.

Even the wandmaker Olivander paid him a visit. Dumbledore had asked Harry earlier for a description of his old wand as to give Olivander an idea of what selection to bring with him. It didn't take long for Harry to find a suitable replacement, but even Olivander admitted it wasn't a perfect match. Harry was thankful to have a new wand and as soon as he was alone he cast a spell to actually change the color of his hair more permanently as the Camo Candies he had been taking every few hours had almost completely run out.

Later that day, with the help of Hagrid, Harry carried all his new supplies into the Gryffindor Tower. Hagrid was quite talkative, asking him many questions about where he was from and his friends and family.

"Have yer been up ter the tower before?" Hagrid asked eagerly. "Do yer like Hogwarts so far? Do yer have an owl, has yer family owled yer yet?"

"Er, no, I haven't, at least I don't remember. Hogwarts is nice." Harry answered awkwardly as they approached the portrait.

"Oh righ'," Hagrid said quickly. "I keep forgettin' you don't remember much. Well, let me know if yer need anything, I live out on the grounds, you can' miss me hut." With that, Hagrid said the password and then dropped off Harry's things in the common room before walking out. The gold and red tapestries made him feel at home. Similarly to the rest of Hogwarts, not much had changed. Some of the furniture had been replaced since he had gone and the message board had different clippings posted but all in all it was how he had left it.

Harry paused for a second before balancing his cauldron on top of his trunk and heaving everything up the stairs. Hopefully now that he was going to be living in the same tower, he would get to meet his father. The more he thought of it actually happening, the more nervous he became. What if his father didn't like him? He knew he had been very popular in school, what if the marauders weren't interested in meeting him?

Harry reached the seventh years dormitory and pushed open the door, dragging his things over to the empty bed on the far side. Harry found spare sheets and blankets in the side table next to his bed and quickly began putting his bed together. After everything was in place, he took a moment to look at the other beds for a hint towards who he would be living with.

Two of the other four beds were untidy while the other two looked neat and clean. In fact, the one in the farthest corner looked untouched all together. The two messier beds also had trunks at the end which had been left wide open with books and robes spilling out of them. Harry walked past one of the beds and glanced at the nightstand. Harry froze.

"No." He said in disbelief. There was a photo of four boys standing in a row with their arms around each others shoulders, laughing.

The door was suddenly thrown open and the room erupted in voices.

"No, no, you don't understand you had to have been there." Sirius said through bursts of laughter. James followed next, also laughing hysterically. Remus walked in third, looking less than amused.

"There's nothing funny about it, Sirius."

"Yes there is! I'm telling you Moon—" Sirius stopped, noticing Harry. The other two boys also turned to look at him.

"Oh, hello." Remus said, holding out his hand. "You must be the new students, I'm Remus." Harry tried to move his hand to shake Remus's, but he couldn't. He couldn't form words either. All he was able to do successfully was open and close his mouth a few times while his right arm twitched. Sirius and James looked at each other with raised eyebrows as Remus awkwardly lowered his hand.

"Well, uhm, it's nice to meet you. Welcome to Gryffindor." Remus said looking around the room for inspiration for a conversation. "Oh, this is James, James Potter." James raised his hand in a half wave.

"And this is Sirius Black." Sirius simply nodded in his direction.

"We normally have another dorm mate, his name is Peter, but he's been away for awhile now, his grandmother's not doing well." Remus said pointing to the untouched bed that Harry now noticed was also missing a trunk.

"Well, if you need anything just let us know." Harry nodded awkwardly, struggling to hide his astonishment but his wide eyes gave it away.

"Have you had dinner yet?" Remus asked. Sirius groaned, causing Remus to shoot him a glare.

"Uhm, no," Harry said, finally finding his voice. "But I'm not hungry either so I wasn't planning on going."

"Oh alright, well I'll bring you back something small just in case you do get hungry later on." Remus said smiling, happy to finally have gotten Harry to say something. "We were just coming in to drop off our bags before heading down now so if you change your mind, feel free to join us. Do you know how to get to the Great Hall?"

Harry nodded.

"Great." Remus smiled again. "What was your name again?"

"Harry." Harry answered shortly.

"Well, Harry, it was very nice to meet you. When we get back we can compare schedules, we probably have a lot of classes together if you aren't behind in anything." Remus said as he walked to his desk and sat his book bag next to his chair. "We'll see you later then."

"Bye," Harry said. Sirius and James muttered something in response before exiting with Remus.

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"You know, you guys could have tried to be a little less hostile; we all are going to be living together for some extended period of time, you both realize this, right?" Remus said with a frown as the trio walked to the Great Hall.

"Yeah but, he was just so…" James started.

"Weird." Sirius finished. James nodded.

"You know what McGonagall said. He lost his memory from some accident and he's spent all of his time so far in the hospital wing. Of course he's going to seem a little bit out of it, it doesn't mean that you two get to be impolite."

Sirius rolled his eyes, but James looked away feeling slightly guilty.

"C'mon, Moony," Sirius said as they walked through the great oak doors and towards the Gryffindor table. "He was staring us down like we were boggarts."

"Or werewolves." James muttered under his breath with a grin. Remus shot him a look.

"The point is," Remus said changing the subject. "We should be as welcoming as possible. We don't want him to feel out of place or to get off on the wrong foot with him, who knows how long he'll be staying with us."

"I guess we can try and get to know him." James muttered as he spooned mashed potatoes onto his plate.

"Yeah, and maybe if you act really nice and heroic and help the underdog, Evans might recognize you for a second." Sirius snorted.

"Yeah, what the hell," James started. "I thought after I got picked as Head Boy she might actually recognize how great I am. I mean, we work together all the time."

"Maybe you should work on your ego a little, Prongs." Remus smirked as he poured some pumpkin juice for himself.

After the three finished eating and after Remus had wrapped a sandwich in a napkin for Harry, they all headed back up to the dormitory. When they entered, they found Harry sitting on the corner of his bed reading quietly. He didn't say much as they walked in, as he was still somewhat in shock after having met them. He also had sensed that James and Sirius didn't like him much and it had left him feeling a bit depressed.

"Heya, Harry." James said brightly. Harry looked up, still not fully comprehending who he was talking to. "Whatchya readin'?"

"Just one of the textbooks." Harry answered. Sirius stuck out his tongue.

"You read that for fun? I need to introduce you to some high quality literature." Sirius said, tossing him a brightly bound book simply entitled, _'1000 Pranks for Young Witches and Wizards_'.

"It's a classic." James smirked. "We've left a bunch of notes in there too, eventually we hope to pass it down to the next generation of mischief makers."

Harry couldn't suppress his grin. '_Fred and George would love this,_' he thought, flipping through the pages of notes and ideas.

"I'll be sure to look through it," Harry said, still smiling.

"So Harry," James said, reaching under his bed and pulling out his broom. "Do you play Quidditch?"

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Later that night, after the laughter and conversations had died down and everyone had gotten into bed, Harry pulled his blankets close to him and smiled, letting a few tears fall down his face.

Hogwarts had never felt more like home.

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REVIEW. thanks.


	6. Friends and Family

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Harry woke the next morning to the sound of others moving on the other side of the curtain that surrounded his bed. Groggily, Harry tried to figure out where he was. It looked like his bed in Gryffindor tower — had he gone back to the future? Anxiety swept through him as he sat up and pulled the curtains open. He hadn't had enough time with his father yet.

Harry was relieved to see James looking at him with a grin.

"Shh." James held his finger to his lips before waving Harry over. Quietly, Harry got out of bed and towards James who was tiptoeing towards Sirius's bed. Remus was sitting at his desk, looking up at the two over his book. Sirius was still fast asleep.

Silently, James raised his wand, clearly struggling to hold back laughter before shouting,

"_Aguamenti!_" Sirius yelped at a jet of water hit him square in the face. James roared with laughter as Sirius fought to escape. Finally, James broke the spell, still laughing as Sirius coughed loudly.

"You prat," Sirius eventually shouted.

"It was time to get up!" James laughed, shooting Harry a grin. Harry smiled back. He didn't think he could be happier.

Suddenly, the dorm to the dorm opened and in walked a thin, beautiful redhead with emerald green eyes. James immediately hid his wand behind his back and stepped away from the spluttering Sirius, trying his best to look like nothing was going on.

"Oh, hello Lily, have you met Harry yet?" James said, gesturing to the shocked boy next to him. Harry had barely thought of meeting his mother, he had been too surprised in meeting all the marauders. But now there she was, standing there.

"No, I haven't." She said hotly. She turned to Harry and her expression softened a little. "Hello, Harry, it's very nice to meet you. I hope Potter hasn't been too awful to live with so far."

James face fell a little at the remark, but he quickly picked himself back up again.

"So, Lils, how can I help you?"

"Don't call me that." She snapped, turning back to James. "You do remember that it's Monday, right?"

"Er, yes."

"And what happens on Mondays?"

"Uhm… We have class?"

"And what happens before class." Lily said, tapping her foot impatiently.

James paused staring at her with a blank face.

"We have our MEETING, James!" Lily shouted throwing her hands up in frustration. "Our scheduled MEETING that we have every single week!"

"Oh, no," James said, looking very sincerely apologetic. "I completely forgot, I'm sorry —"

"I have no idea why Dumbledore picked you to be Head Boy, it's only the second week of classes and you're already behind on your duties." Lily glared. "I don't want to spend this entire year running around after you, cleaning up your messes and making sure you're on time for things. You were given this responsibility, you accepted it, I and everyone else expect you to follow through with it!"

With that, Lily stormed out of the room. Just as she closed the door, she threw it open again.

"You're lucky I'm not going to tell Dumbledore that you were messing around and playing stupid pranks instead of being on time!" She glared before almost leaving again, but stopping once more. "Oh, and nice to meet you Harry, let me know if you need anything, I'd be more than happy to help you." She glared once more before slamming the door.

James quickly ran over to his trunk and threw on his robes. He snatched up his bag, dumped some books into it, and then ran out the door, presumably to the meeting he had forgotten about.

"Feisty one, ain't she?" Sirius remarked with a grin. "That's Evans for you."

"She seemed a little…" Harry started, not sure what to say. He had always imagined his mother to be very kind and sweet.

"Ill-tempered?" Remus offered. Harry nodded slightly. "She's not always like that, she just wants to fulfill her role as Head Girl. Her and James never got along that well either, so it was an interesting choice of Dumbledore's to pair them together. You should meet her again some other time when she isn't flustered, she's actually very kind."

Harry nodded, feeling a little better. How could his parents have ever gotten together if she got so angry? It occurred to Harry that he had always imagined his mother to be like Mrs. Weasley, and perhaps she was: even Mrs. Weasley was known for shouting and getting angry because she cared too much.

After Sirius and Harry had gotten dressed, the three headed down to the Great Hall for breakfast. Remus told Harry all about the professors and classes they would be going to this morning — he had guessed correctly that Harry would be sharing all the same classes with the Marauders. They chatted for a long while, and the topic of careers finally got brought up.

"What do you think you want to do then?" Harry asked, taking another bite of his pancake.

"Well, to be honest, I'm not sure." Remus answered. "I thought about maybe being a Healer or Auror, but if I really think about it I think I'd be happiest as a teacher here." Harry grinned knowingly.

"What about you, Sirius?"

"The world's greatest Quidditch player of course!" Sirius barked triumphantly. "James and I are going to make it to the top!"

James rushed over to the table and began putting food onto his plate quickly.

"How was your meeting?" Remus asked politley.

"It was alright, Evans talked most of the time," James answered as he poured his pumpkin juice. "What were you guys talking about?"

"Careers," Remus began, but Sirius interrupted with a shout:

"Quidditch!"

James face brightened.

"By the way, Harry," James said. "We're holding tryouts for the Quidditch team, you should definitely come."

"Oh yeah," Harry said grinning. "What positions are open?"

"Uhh, one chaser position and seeker." James said. "I might be missing one, I can't remember if Harrison graduated last year or not…"

"Yeah," Sirius snorted. "It's hard to remember because of his awful grades."

"Who's captain this year?" Harry asked.

"Me, of course," James said grinning. "Who else would be best for the job?"

"Er, I'm right here you know." Sirius said with a playful glare.

"Oh right, sorry Padfoot, you know you're second in command." Sirius puffed out his chest proudly.

There first lesson was Potions, much to Sirius's dismay. Sirius had always hated Potions, a list which he recited the entirety of while they walked through the dungeons.

"For starters, we have it with the slimy Slytherins — I don't know if anyone has told you this, but you hate the Slytherins now." Sirius said to Harry.

"So that makes the class even worse than it normally is because that means _Snivellus_ is in that class." Sirius spat out the name is disgust.

"FURTHERMORE — see Remus, I'm _utilizing_ my _vocabulary._" Remus simply rolled his eyes, but Sirius continued nonetheless.

"Furthermore! Potions is a silly class! Why must we all subject ourselves to this, er, subject."

"Potions is actually really useful, you just don't like it because you're not good at it." Remus pointed out.

"No!" gasped Sirius dramatically. "I _could_ do it if I wanted to, but there are more important things, like Quidditch."

"He's got a point there, Moony." James grinned. "Are you any good at Potions, Harry?"

"No, I'm rubbish." Harry smirked.

"Don't worry, I'm alright at it, we can work together. I usually work with Peter but I don't know if he's even going to be back this year," James said somewhat sadly. "I hope his grandmother gets better soon."

Harry looked away, not wanting them to see the anger that flashed across his face. That stupid rat. His parents lost their lives because of him, and yet here his father was, actually caring about Peter being gone.

When they reached the Potions room, Harry was somewhat surprised to see Slughorn up at the front of the classroom. He should have guessed — Slughorn had told him plenty of times how he had loved having his mother as his student. Sure enough, the first five minutes of class were spent waiting for him to finish his conversation with Lily. When they finished talking, Lily walked past Harry to get to her seat and smiled and waved at him as she past.

"Good morning, class!" Slughorn shouted, getting the attention of all the students.

"Now!" He said, clapping his hands together. "Let me begin by welcoming our newest student, Mr. Harry Williams! Quite the mystery case we've got with him." Slughorn laughed as Harry turned red.

"I'd love to have you for one of my dinner parties sometime, Mr. Williams. Perhaps I can help you gain some of your memory, eh?" Slughorn chuckled again.

"Now, class, I have written the instructions on the board." Slughorn flicked his wand as the blackboards flew up revealing the instructions. "Get to work, come to me if you have any questions, and _please_ read them carefully Mr. Black, we don't need another trip to the hospital wing for anyone."

Across the room there was a snort of laughter, causing Sirius to glare furiously. Harry looked over and saw a young Professor Snape sneering back. His hair was as greasy as ever but he wasn't wearing all black. Instead, he wore the Slytherin uniform with a bright green and silver tie. Color looked very foreign on him.

Harry and James got to work, picking out ingredients from their personal supplies and some of the rarer ones from the cupboard on the far side of the room. While he was walking back, Harry accidentally walked into Snape who had been walking forward while reading his textbook.

"Sorry Prof—" Harry began before he could stop himself, but luckily Snape spoke over him.

"Watch where you're going, Williams." Snape snapped.

"Maybe if you didn't have your big, greasy nose in a book, you wouldn't have walked into him." James quickly retorted. Snape was about to respond when he looked over James's shoulder and saw Lily looking at the group with concern.

"Whatever." Snape grunted, walking past them to the cupboard. James scoffed and walked back to their desk, Harry following close behind.

By the end of the lesson, only Lily and her partner, a girl named Maria Waters, had successfully completed their potion. Slughorn also praised James and Harry for almost finishing, saying if they left it to simmer for another fifteen minutes it would have also finished perfectly.

Unfortunately, Snape, Sirius, and Remus all ended up leaving class early in order to go to the hospital wing, as Sirius had tried to sabotage Snape's potion by placing random ingredients into the Slytherin's cauldron. Remus had noticed, and had run across the room to try and stop him but it was too late. Snape turned around just as Sirius dropping a hand full of ground up dried bat wings. The potion spontaneously exploded, splashing onto the three boys and burning their skin. Frowning, Slughorn had asked Lily and Maria who had already finished to escort the three boys to the infirmary.

James and Harry decided to pick up the Gryffindor's bags — Harry tried to take Severus's as well, but James refused — and they quickly went to the hospital wing. When they arrived, Remus and Sirius were both being told they were allowed to leave, but Snape was still in bed. Harry handed James Lily's bag and gestured to bring it over to her. He did so, and she accepted it politely as Harry handed Maria hers.

"You're the new student, right?" Maria asked, brushing her blonde hair off her shoulder so she could pick up her bag. "Harry, right?"

"Yeah, nice to meet you."

"Nice prank, mate." James said, handing Sirius his bag who was grinning wildly.

"Yeah, did you hear what Thompson said? Snivellus is going to be stuck in here for the rest of the day and will have to come in every day after for the rest of the week! Success!" Sirius said holding up his hand for a high five. James was about to give him one, but stopped when Lily scoffed.

"I hope you're being sarcastic, Potter. Severus could have gotten really hurt." James immediately brought his hand behind his head as if he had been going to ruffle his hair.

"Yeah, yeah, I was." James said seriously. "Really Sirius, you took it too far." Sirius rolled his eyes, knowing why his friend was acting like that.

"Let's not forget that you also got not only yourself injured, but me as well!" Remus remarked as he picked up his bag.

"Yeah, but we're fine now!" Sirius defended himself.

The Gryffindors left the hospital wing and went to their next class.

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Later that night, Harry found himself sitting in the Gryffindor common room by himself, deep in thought. He had had an unbelievable day. He had spent so much time with his father and had even spoken with his mother a few times, things he never thought he'd ever be able to do. But maybe this wasn't real.

What if he was in some kind of Mirror of Erised dream that Voldemort had trapped him in? He couldn't let himself get swept up in this world where is parents were still alive. He couldn't forget the reality he had left, there were people who needed him. His friends were still fighting a war. There was Ron, and… Hermione… Ginny… The entire Weasley family… His Godfather, his teachers, Hagrid… Everyone had relied on him and to them he must have just magically vanished without a trace.

He didn't even know where he was.

"Harry?"

Harry turned around and saw Lily standing on the steps that lead to the girl's tower.

"Oh, hey." Harry said turning back to look at the fire.

"It's getting pretty late," Lily said walking over and sitting across from him. "Can you not sleep?"

"I'm not tired," Harry answered lamely. Really, his mind was to heavy with tangled thoughts.

"How was your first day of classes?" Lily asked genuinely interested.

"It was really good, I really enjoyed it." Apart from being able to spend the day with his parents, he had also experienced a very peaceful day at Hogwarts. During his seventh year in the future or in reality, Hogwarts had been a much gloomier place. There were Aurors stationed on the grounds most of the time, and the news of dark magic and death were constantly pouring in over owls. More than once a student had burst into tears during breakfast after being informed of a relatives capture by Death Eaters or, worse, murder.

"I'm sorry for this morning," Lily broke Harry's thoughts again. "James can just be so frustrating. I know he has so much potential if he would just try harder, you know? If he stopped with those silly pranks… Especially the ones where people get hurt, like today." She laughed.

"You know I actually get worried about the prick sometimes."

Harry grinned. Maybe Lily didn't hate James as much as she let on.

"Are you going to go to Slughorn's dinner party this week?" Lily asked.

"Uhm, I don't know, I'm not really wild about it." Harry answered honestly, making Lily laugh.

"No one is," Lily said. "But sometimes he tells us about the topics he plans to put on our exams so it turns into a quite useful study session. It's a little too early in the year for him to be helpful yet though. You should go a bit later in the year."

Harry nodded, smiling.

"Well, I'm going to get to bed now. Maria had told me she had seen you awake down here and I just wanted to make sure you were alright."

"Oh, I didn't even see her come in." Harry admitted.

"It's fine, she said you looked like you were distracted by something." Lily paused. "Are you thinking about what happened? Have you remembered anything? I don't mean to be nosy, Dumbledore told James and I and the other teachers about your situation. If there's anything that you'd like me to do to help you, let me know."

"Of course," Harry said. Lily smiled before wishing him a good night and heading up the stairs.

Harry looked back into the fire. Maybe he should start spending some time in the library. It was the only place he could think to start looking for an answer. Though Harry couldn't help feeling somewhat hesitant. He couldn't help wishing he had more time with his parents.

"No," Harry muttered shaking his head. His friends were more important.

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See, an extra long chapter for you guys! Now return the favor and review :)


	7. A Promise

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"Ron, please," a voice said on the other side of the wall. "It's two thirty, you need to get some rest."

"No."

"Ron, please —"

"I said no, Hermione!"

Ginny sighed and rolled over, using the covers to brush tears away from her eyes. It had almost been a week since the attack on Hogwarts. Almost week since…

More tears fell down her face. She took the framed photograph of her and Harry off of her bedside table and hugged it close to her. He wasn't gone, she knew it. Everyone knew it. That's why Ron never slept and was pulling his hair out over thousands of books. That's why Dumbledore had also disappeared. Everyone was doing what they could to find him.

Since the attack, Hogwarts had been immediately shut down indefinitely and all the students sent home. After much debate it was decided that the Weasley family as well as Hermione and Remus were all to move into Grimmauld Place. Order members were frequently coming in and out of the building, though Ginny rarely saw them as she spent much of her time in her makeshift room.

When they had arrived and everyone began filling up the guest rooms, it became evident that there were only just enough rooms for everyone meaning someone had to take what was intended to be Harry's. Without a word, Ron and walked into the room and he hadn't left since. Hermione brought food up, but Ginny was pretty sure he hadn't eaten much of it. She could hear their conversations pretty clearly through the walls and the two often argued about either Ron's lack of sleep or lack of nutrition.

"Ron… You've already read that book…" Hermione's voice echoed hesitantly.

"I'm checking it again," Ron snapped. Ginny frowned. Everyone was frustrated and desperate for Harry's return, but Ron had become completely unapproachable and unreasonable. She wished he wouldn't yell at the only person who could even handle communicating with him.

"Is there anything I can do?" Hermione's voice wavered a little, sobs building up in her throat. There was a sigh and a chair scraped against the hardwood.

"I'm sorry 'Mione." Ron mumbled, barely audible now. "I'm just so worried…"

Ron's voice trailed off. Ginny could hear Hermione saying something back, but they were both speaking so quietly that she couldn't make anything out. Ginny pulled the photo away from her and looked at Harry's smiling face. It was from last year, the two of them right after they had won the Quidditch Cup. They were still in their robes, both of them splattered with mud as it had been raining that day. It had been such a dramatic, thrilling game. And they had won. And they had kissed in the rain…

Ginny choked on another sob as she brought the picture back towards her chest. It hurt too much to look. There was a knock on her door.

"Come in," Ginny sniffed, wiping her tears away hastily. Hermione slowly pushed open the door and stepped in.

"Hello, Ginny." Hermione said softly as she walked over to Ginny and put her arm around her. Ginny shook as she held her tears in. "It's ok, you need to let it out." Ginny just shook her head.

"Is…Sirius…back?" Ginny choked out. Immediately after everyone had moved into Grimmauld Place, Sirius had taken off. He had been missing for two days before he came back for an hour in the evening and then left again. Since then, nothing.

"No," Hermione said quietly, rubbing circles on her back. "But I'm sure if he figures anything out he will send an owl, that is if he doesn't come back and tell us himself."

"Why did this happen…" Ginny whispered, tears leaking from the corners of her eyes. Hermione gave a shaky sigh as sadness overwhelmed her too.

"I don't know, Ginny."

"It's always him thought." Ginny cried softly.

"It's because he's so kind. He puts everyone before himself so he always lands himself in situations like this. It's how he became known as the hero for the Wizarding World." Hermione sniffed.

"Hermione…" Ginny whispered. "Be honest with me. Do you think Harry's dead?"

"I… I don't know. I hope not." Hermione sighed. "Honestly, I don't think he is. Voldemort presented his wand but that was it. There's a reason he couldn't show us Harry's body."

Ginny smiled a little, realizing she was right. Voldemort wouldn't have kept Harry a secret unless things hadn't gone according to plan. Harry was out there. They just needed to find him. Ginny began to grow tired in Hermione's arms.

"Hermione," Ginny yawned. "You were the last one to see him, right?"

"We think so, yes." Hermione looked away as tears welled in her eyes.

"What was the last thing he said to you?" Hermione let out a small sob, causing Ginny to hold onto her a little tighter.

"He promised he would come back."

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Though Harry had stuck to his plan and had begun frequenting the library more than it seemed he really needed to ("I'm sorry guys, I've forgotten a lot of material from previous years, I really need to go review more"), he hadn't found anything of use. He even took a trip to the forbidden section one night, but found nothing. He wasn't entirely surprised, as the spell Voldemort had used was one he had never heard of before and it was unlikely that it existed during his parents time. Voldemort had probably invented it himself.

Though Harry continued to go to classes, he zoned out more and more each class, focusing instead on a way to get back. But how could he? He couldn't find any information in the library. Should he risk telling Dumbledore what he knew? Was he wasting precious time in the past attending these silly classes that he had already taken? Should he leave Hogwarts and go looking for the current Voldemort who seemed like the only resource for answers, and even _he_ wouldn't be very helpful since he hadn't actually created the spell yet.

When the weekend came, James and Sirius insisted that Harry had been spending entirely too much time in the library and needed to get out to the Quidditch Pitch and tryout for the team.

"C'mon, Har," Sirius said throwing his arm around his future Godson. "Don't you want to become famous, like me and James?"

"Oh yes," Remus snorted. "By joining the Quidditch team for a year, yes, you will gain all fame and fortune." Remus thought Harry's frequent trips to the library were almost inspiring and he did not approve of the other two boys trying to talk him into quitting the new habit.

"Don't be such a kill joy, Remus." Sirius said, nudging his friend. "Even you like playing Quidditch."

"Yes, sometimes, when I have much more spare time. I do not play it instead of studying."

"Well, Sirius and I, and maybe soon Harry, are all members of the team, we can't just not show up for practices and games because we could use that time to study. There's a balance." James said. Remus sighed.

When they reached the Quidditch Pitch, there were already some students there waiting. Some of them had their own brooms and some didn't, so Remus and Sirius stayed to talk to the other students while James and Harry went to get the brooms.

"Ya know," James said handing Harry a few more brooms. "You look weird as a blonde, did you dye your hair?"

"Er, no." Harry said, subconsciously smoothing his bangs down over where his scar would be. He had in fact been using a concealing charm ever since he had gotten a wand so no one would ask him more questions.

"We look pretty similar though, right?" James said as he picked up the large trunk containing the Quidditch balls. "Sirius said something to me about it a few days ago and it kind of hit me that we do."

"Yeah, I guess." Harry laughed nervously.

"What if we're related somehow?" James suggested, getting excited. "Maybe you're a distant cousin! You should come to my house during Christmas break and talk to my parents, maybe they can help you remember something. They know a lot more of the extended family than I do."

"Er, yeah, maybe." Harry said smiling. His grandparents.

After walking back to the group, Harry and James passed out all of the brooms, Harry keeping one for himself as he also didn't have one.

"Now, who here is trying out for the Chaser position?" The majority of the students raised their hands.

"Good, and the rest of you are Seeker then." There were only three other students apart from Harry who hadn't raised their hand the first time. James flashed a smile at Harry.

"Alright, let's get started then!"

First, James had them all kick off and zoom around the pitch a few times. He then had them do a few formations he described. Two second years who had been going after the Chaser position almost immediately began struggling. After they both almost collided and knocked each other off their brooms, James told them that it wasn't safe for them to continue flying ("Have you two even ridden a broom before?" Neither of them answered).

Eventually James asked the Seekers to land and began testing the Chasers. He had his current Keeper, Bartleton Baxby, play against the new recruits. They were all decent at passing, but one particular girl, Paige Elliot, was excellent at scoring, getting quite a few goals past Baxby.

Next, James took out the snitch. He had the Seekers go up in pairs against each other. He let two of the other students Harry didn't know go up first and then he released the snitch. Immediately, the two students began zooming after it, twisting around each other at full speeds. After ten minutes, neither of them had caught the snitch. James stopped them anyways, he hadn't actually expected anyone to catch it yet, he just wanted to see a sample of their flying abilities.

"Alright Williams," James said addressing Harry. "Let's see what you've got. Mathias, you're up too!" Harry kicked off and hovered a few meters about the field. Mathias nervously flew up to be on the same level as him. They glanced at each other quickly before looking back at James.

"Go!" James shouted, tossing the snitch up into the air.

Harry and Mathias immediately shot after it. Unlike the other students who had tried out, Matthias seemed to have actually been on a broom more than once. He matched Harry as they spun after it, higher and higher up into the clouds. Matthias reached out about to snatch the golden ball when it suddenly plunged towards the ground.

Harry immediately dove down after it, leaving Matthias behind still trying to regain his balance. Harry pressed himself as close to the broom handle as he could, speeding faster and faster towards the ground. James, Remus, and the other students who had been trying out began shouting, concern on all their faces. Sirius just stood in awe.

James watched as Harry was seconds from the ground hurtling at full speed towards the grass when suddenly, at literally the very last second, Harry pulled hard on the broom handle and leveled out, barely an inch off the ground, he tumbled off his broom, summersaulting through the grass.

Everyone ran towards him shouting his name as Matthias flew down and joined the group.

"Harry!" James called rushing to his side. Harry looked up from the grass with a grin and opened his hand, revealing the snitch. Everyone's mouths dropped open.

"You… you caught it?" James said in disbelief. "Mate, I thought you were about to kill yourself!"

"And over a silly Quidditch tryout!" Remus cried.

"I'm fine," Harry said, standing and brushing off his robes. "Probably some bruises, but I didn't break anything this time."

"This time?" Sirius said in wonder. "You've done that move before?"

"Well, yeah, it's how I won the game in…" Harry trailed off realizing he had said too much. "Er, I can't remember when it was."

"No, this is great Harry!" James said smiling. "You're getting your memory back! And not only that but you just pulled off the most amazing dive I've ever seen AND caught the snitch in eight minutes. You, mate, are on the team."

"Matthias was really close though," Harry interjected. "He almost caught the snitch before me, it just took a weird turn right before he grabbed it."

"Don't worry," Matthias said smiling. "You definitely deserve the position, there's no way I could have done that time."

"How do you feel about second string?" James said to Matthias.

Twenty minutes later, the Gryffindors were all trudging back to their dormitory. James had promised the potential Chasers that he would post the full list of the Quidditch team in the common room within the next few days, though Harry was pretty sure Paige Elliot had gotten the position.

When they made it back, they all showered and changed for dinner. James kept going on about how he had a meeting to go to ("You asked Lily to have it Saturday nights instead of Thursday mornings, you brought this upon yourself"), but Harry couldn't help but smile. James wasn't annoyed, he was excited.

"I hope you and Lily get along," Harry said. "The only times I've seen you interact she's ended up glaring at you."

"Yeah but this time I've got ideas," James said grinning.

"Ideas?" Remus said raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, she told me to bring ideas to our next meeting, for special events at Hogwarts." James said.

"What did you think of?" Remus asked.

"Well, I was thinking about maybe having a celebration after the Quidditch Cup was presented. Or maybe some kind of party for the beginning of the Quidditch season." James looked very proud of his ideas.

"Maybe you should try and think of things that don't have to do with Quidditch." Remus suggested. "You always end up having a party in the common room for those things anyways."

"What kinds of things does Lily like?" Harry asked.

"I don't know…" James said sadly. "If you haven't realized yet, we don't really have many friendly conversations."

"Well, maybe you should bring your idea of having a party or celebration and ask her if she has anything to add to it," Harry said. "That way she'll get her input and you'll also learn more about her."

"Mate," James said seriously. "You are a genius."

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Voldemort narrowed his eyes in annoyance as the door to his chamber was thrown open. Three masked men entered and knelt before him.

"Where is he." Voldemort said coldly. One man rose slowly, visibly shaking.

"We… We can't find him anywhere, sir." The short man squeaked.

"Have you heard from Severus? Does the Order know anything?"

"Severus has gone missing, my Lord." the man said again, his body twitching in nervousness. "We…We…W-w-w-w—"

"OUT WITH IT, WORMTAIL." Voldemort shouted. Peter immediately fell to his knees in fright. A second man rose gracefully, removing his mask in a swift motion.

"My Lord," Lucius said quietly. "We believe Dumbledore has asked members of the Order he believes are closest to him and Potter, such as Snape and Sirius Black, to go looking for him. No one has seen any of them since we attacked."

"If Severus knows what is good for him, he will get back here as soon as possible…" Voldemort growled drumming his fingers on the arm rest of his throne made of bones.

"My Lord," Lucius began again. "If I may be so bold to ask, was Severus involved in the creation of the curse?"

"Yes…" Voldemort muttered thoughtfully. "He knew I wanted to make something more permanent than death. He was the one that brought all those books and made those potions…"

"I don't think Snape is to be trusted…" Lucius said quietly.

"No," Voldemort said firmly before looking up again. "Severus knew of my plans, but he was not a part of the final act. Only I know the incantation, the wand motion, the potions behind it."

"But, what does the curse even _do_?" The third Death Eater said. Voldemort glared, fury building up visibly causing his body to shake. The Death Eater immediately fell to his knees again groveling but —

"AVADA KEDAVRA!" Voldemort roared. The Death Eater was knocked backwards, his lifeless body crumpling a few meters away. Voldemort sat back down, the remaining two Death Eaters looking very tense.

"We'll just have to run some experiments, won't we." Voldemort said calmly. "I thought I knew what the spell did, but maybe I was wrong… Or perhaps Potter was just another loop hole as he usually is…"

"Malfoy!" Voldemort barked.

"Yes, my Lord?"

"Go get me some muggles," Voldemort said. "We have research to do and I need some rats."

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

That evening while James was at his meeting and Sirius had gone to chat up Maria once again, Remus and Harry had decided to go to the Owlery. Remus wanted to mail a package of cookies and other treats he had gotten from the kitchens to Peter, and though Harry felt his blood boil every time he heard that name he still wanted to spend more time with his new friend.

Remus called down an old barn owl and gave it instructions as he attached the package to it's leg. Together, Harry and Remus walked out on the balcony and Remus released the owl. They watched as it soared away through the cloudless sky and over the forest.

"It's almost a full moon," Harry commented quietly.

"Yeah." Remus mumbled. Harry sensed him tense next to him.

"You know," Harry said, looking at Remus who was trying to avoid eye contact. "I had a friend awhile ago who was a werewolf." Remus's eyes darted up to meet his.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah. I've actually met two men who were werewolves, one was really evil but the other one was very kind. Probably the kindest, most caring man I ever met." Harry looked back at Remus. "I don't understand how people could have judged him so harshly over something he couldn't control. He was a great man and I'm glad I met him. I don't know what I would have done without him."

With that, Harry gave a small smile before turning away and walking back down the stone steps. Remus stared blankly at him until he disappeared and then slowly turned back and faced the moon.


	8. A Simple Greeting

Guys, you've kind of been letting me down because I've been updating a lot and I've almost gotten a THOUSAND views (which is super exciting by itself) but I've only gotten five reviews. And they were all on either chapter one or two. CMON GUYS. let me know how I'm doing! I really REALLY REEEAAALLLYYYY hope you decided to review on this or any of the other chapters. Tell me what you like, tell me what you hate, but PLEASE tell me somthing!

tl;dr: please review. youre making me sad. But thanks to the 14 people who are now following the story! you make me smile through my tears from not receiving reviews!

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Lily chewed on the end of her quill as she stared at the blank parchment. She hadn't been able to think of anything particularly interesting and she had asked James to bring ideas — she would look like an idiot if she had none of her own. Lily looked up as she heard footsteps echoing through the library heading towards her. James grinned as he took off his bag and sat across from her.

"Hey, Lily." He said warmly. He couldn't stop himself from smiling when he was around her.

"Hello James," she said formally. "How has your evening been?"

"Good, we had Quidditch tryouts today!" As soon as James said it he wanted to kick himself. They hadn't even been talking for ten seconds and he had already brought up Quidditch.

"Well, that's good." Lily said politely. "Did you think of any events we could do for this year?"

"Uhm, I was thinking we could have some kind of celebration? Maybe a party, or a ball?"

"Hmm…" Lily said. "I had thought of that too, but it seemed kind of… I don't know. Too normal. I couldn't think of anything that could make it more interesting than a normal dance."

"Oh, er, yeah." James said lamely. Lily waited for him to continue but when he continued to stare at her blankly, she sighed.

"Maybe we just shouldn't plan anything. Hogwarts rarely has huge celebrations apart from feasts and the last ball was during the Triwizard Tournament of 1792 and we all know how that year ended…"

James continued to stare blankly. Lily sighed again.

"A student died."

"Oh, wow, that's crazy." James said. Lily let out another long sigh. James knew this wasn't going well.

"I guess we can talk about something else." Lily said, pulling out a piece of parchment that already had writing on it. She glanced over it. "Did you talk to the prefects about their evening rounds after hours?"

"Uh, no, net yet…" James trailed off. Lily raised an eyebrow before setting the parchment down on the table.

"Do you want to be Head Boy, James?" She asked in a serious tone.

"Yeah," he said honestly.

"Then why do I feel like I'm doing both jobs?" Lily paused. "I want us to get along for the sake of our positions, because it's actually a really big honor to get them but… I don't think we can. You just don't seem invested in this. I know you, you'd rather be talking about Quidditch and pulling dangerous pranks right now."

Lily stood up and picked up her things.

"No, wait, Lily —" James started also standing.

"James. It's fine. We don't get along, we don't have similar interests. And that's ok. I don't want to argue with you and I don't want to stress over this. I'll let the prefects know we're having a meeting Monday night."

Lily turned around and left the library. James sat back down his face blank once more.

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

The next morning when Harry woke up, Remus was already gone. Sirius explained to Harry that he hadn't felt well during the night and had gone to the hospital wing, but Harry knew better. It took fifteen minutes to drag James out of bed. When he finally did get out, he spent another twenty minutes just standing in the shower. Eventually, Sirius talked him into coming out of the bathroom and getting dressed. Harry could tell this would be a long day.

"Mate," Sirius said over breakfast. "Can you please just tell us what's bothering you?"

"Lily." James finally said. Harry and Sirius glanced at each other.

"What happened during the meeting?" Harry asked.

"I don't know!" James said in frustration. "I thought it wasn't going half bad, it wasn't perfect but I didn't say anything stupid — "

"Did you talk about Quidditch?" Sirius asked.

"Accidentally yeah, but for barely a second." James sat his fork down with a sigh. "I think she's just given up trying to work with me. Ugh! I just want her to give me a chance."

"What have you tried before?" Harry asked curiously.

"I've tried everything!" James cried in anguish. "Every single romantic gesture known to man. I've left flowers on her bed, romantic letters in her bag, I've asked her to come out for dinner, to go to the Three Broomsticks for Butterbeer, bought her chocolate and jewelry for every holiday, and she STILL won't give me a chance."

"Have you er… just tried being friends with her?" Harry asked uncertainly.

"What do you mean?" said James, confused. "I don't want to just be friends, I want to be with her."

"Yeah, I know but I mean, you have to show her why you guys would be so good together. Maybe instead of leaving her flowers and asking her out you could just really work on helping her with the Head Boy and Girl responsibilities. I mean, that's a great excuse for you to spend time together." Harry's face fell a little as he said this. Ron and Hermione had both been awarded the same positions of Head Boy and Girl in their seventh year, and they had definitely gotten to spend much more time together without Harry around.

"Yeah… Maybe you're right…" James muttered poking at his food with his fork.

"And maybe try not pulling pranks anymore?" Harry suggested, causing Sirius to gasp.

"No." he cried. "No, James, I'm serious, this has gone too far, you can't just not pull pranks — that's who we are! It's literally part of our identity!"

"But Harry's right, Lily doesn't like the pranks." James looked down at his plate. "Maybe it's time to grow up."

"NO."

Sirius stood up and looked down the table.

"OI, EVANS. LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE TO JAMES, CAN YOU JUST SNOG HIM ALREA— OW!" Harry yanked Sirius by the sleeve hard making him sit back down. James glared at him.

"But, er, anyways, James," Harry started again. "I don't think that it's pranks in general Lily doesn't like, I think it's just ones that harm other people or hurt their feelings like with Snape."

"_Snivellus_." Sirius snorted.

"You could try being nice to Snape too, maybe try calling him by his actual name." Harry said. James nodded. "All you can do is try and show her that you take school and being Head Boy seriously, so she'll stop thinking you're an immature prat."

James laughed as he punched Harry's arm playfully. Harry smiled back.

o0o0o0o0o0o0o

After breakfast was done, Harry left the two others saying he had some homework he wanted to do on his own so he could concentrate. In reality, he had come up with a new idea of how to do research on getting back home.

Eventually, Harry made it to the seventh floor of the left corridor of the castle. He recognized the familiar tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy teaching trolls ballet. Slowly, he walked past the section of wall three times, focusing all his thoughts on needed a place to study, to do research, to figure out how to get back.

The third time he walked past, the wall shifted and a wooden door carved itself in front of Harry. After the stone and wood seemed to be at rest, Harry opened the door to the Room of Requirement. Inside he saw a very peaceful looking study area, similar to the Gryffindor common room except bookcases lined the walls. A welcoming fireplace was against the farthest wall and a couch and two arm chairs sat in front of it with a stout coffee table in between.

Harry walked further into the room and took a book of the shelf entitled, "_Time: Linear, Circular, or Just a Tangled Mess?_" by Fredrick N. Minburns. He found another on the making of Time-Turners by Emily Washers and yet another on complicated spells and potions used to prevent and reduce aging.

Harry turned away from the shelves and saw in the far corner was a large cauldron and stock cabinet filled with potions ingredients. Harry set his bag down by the fireplace and began flipping through Minburns's book on time. He had to begin somewhere.

Harry glanced up at the big grandfather clock across from him. He had a feeling he was going to be working there for a very long time for many days to come.

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

A full week had gone by, and it hadn't gotten easier for anyone. Sirius still hadn't come back, and neither had Dumbledore. Mrs. Weasley had brought the family clock to Grimmauld Place as well as some other items to make the place feel more like home such as colorful knitted blankets and soft bright cushions for the dingy furniture. Earlier that year, Mrs. Weasley had added a hand to the clock for Harry, which he had been very shy about when she had shown him. All of the hands were set to "Mortal Peril" except Harry's, who was stuck between "Lost" and "Mortal Peril".

Mrs. Weasley carried the clock with her throughout the house as she attempted to clean up the place a bit more, her eyes constantly darting back to the hands to see if anything had changed, though nothing had.

Ron was doing no better now than he had been before. No one really was. However, he seemed to be taking a turn for the worst. He had run out of books to read through and he was getting restless. Instead of staying locked up in Harry's room, he spent all of time in the living room waiting for members of the Order to come walking through. He would immediately demand they tell him anything they knew and before they could give him a response he would follow up with orders to be taken with them where ever they were going.

Of course, Mrs. Weasley was having none of this and therefore Ron remained stuck in Grimmauld Place just like everyone else, but that did as much bad as it did good. Ron had tried to talk Hermione and Ginny into escaping and going out searching, but both girls refused. Hermione tried to explain to Ron that they had no idea where Harry was and there was no point in sneaking out to go looking for him and it would only result in four people being lost instead of one, but Ron didn't care. He just needed to do something, anything.

This particular evening, Ron found himself still waiting on the couch for anyone useful to walk through. He picked at the sandwich his mother had made him hours before, but he had no interest in eating it. Ever since Harry had disappeared, he had had no appetite at all. Every time he did try to eat, the food felt thick and sticky in his mouth and would get stuck in his throat.

Nothing was enjoyable without Harry there.

Around three thirty in the morning, Ron's eyes began to grow too heavy for him to hold open any longer. He had taken recently to sleeping on the couch so he could wake up as soon as someone came in through the door, but there didn't seem to be much point anymore. No one had heard any news and no one would take him anywhere if they had. Hermione had offered each night to stay downstairs with him, but Ron had refused and he felt a bit guilty leaving Hermione alone in her sadness.

"I should stay with her tonight," Ron muttered as he put the plate down on the table and slowly stood up. Suddenly, the fire place burst into green flames making him jump in surprise.

Ron waited expectantly for someone to walk through, maybe someone had actually found out something. He shouldn't have given up so easily.

But after a few moments, instead of someone walking through, the flames became thicker and deepened in color, going from green to royal purple with burst of electric blue. Ron began stepping away from the fireplace slowly — perhaps Death Eaters had hacked into their closed Floo network.

Just as Ron was about to run upstairs to get his parents, a piece of parchment shot out of the fireplace and fluttered to the ground. The flames immediately died down and disappeared completely. Slowly, Ron approached the fireplace and picked up the slightly singed parchment. With shaking hands, he unfolded it.

'_Hello?'_

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Guys. I'm seriously not updating until I get ten more reviews. Sooo... go ahead! REVIEW!


	9. As The Flames Grow Higher

So I asked for ten reviews. I got three. Maybe we can work on this? Think of it as your good deed of the day. REVIEW!

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A sharp ringing noises awoke Harry early the next morning. He groaned, sitting up and grabbing the brass alarm clock on the coffee table. He had decided late last night that he would do the Marauders a favor and not go back to their dorm so they wouldn't have to sneak around and come up with excuses as to why they were gone all night.

Harry yawned as he took off his glasses to rub the sore sides of his nose where the metal had dug in at night. He had spent so long reading the first book off the shelf but it hadn't helped much at all. Nothing had stood out anyways.

Harry glanced at the clock again as he packed up his bag - he would have to be quick if he was going to take a shower before breakfast.

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

"I wonder where Harry was last night…" James muttered quietly as the Marauders huddled together around the breakfast table. "Do you think he went out looking for us?"

"How could he have, he had no idea where to look and he wouldn't have been doing it all night." Sirius responded.

"I think he might know." Remus whispered, causing James and Sirius's eyes to widen.

"But, how?" James sputtered.

"He said something to me the other night," Remus said. "I didn't get the chance to talk to you guys alone so I didn't say anything before. He pointed out that it was almost the full moon and then started talking about how he knew someone who was a werewolf."

Remus looked down at his eggs as James and Sirius stared blankly.

"But, how would he know?" Sirius eventually blurted out.

"I have no idea," Remus sighed. "This was the first full moon since he's been here so it's not as if he started figuring out we went missing once a month every month. Maybe it really was just a coincidence that he happened to say it to me. He was speaking highly of this man he knew, so maybe he was just trying to pass on his story to someone in hopes of extinguishing stereotypes."

James and Sirius nodded, though they both still looked puzzled. There really couldn't be any other explanation, there was no way he could know.

"Hey guys," Harry said putting his stuff down next to Remus suddenly causing all three boys to jump. "Oh sorry, didn't mean to startle you."

"Where were you last night?" James asked quickly. Remus frowned at his lack of tact.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Harry said, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. Sirius immediately became interested.

"Who was it?"

"I'm not saying anything," Harry said grinning as he put food on his plate. Sirius continued to press him for details but Harry only smiled.

And so became Harry's fake secret relationship. Every time Harry decided to go to the Room of Requirement for extended periods of time, especially over night or if he had exhausted his "I have to study" excuse, he would tell them vaguely that he had to meet up with someone. Sirius would always immediately begin guessing names, though Harry didn't actually know any of the people he was suggesting.

Soon Harry found himself completely consumed by thoughts of discovering a way home. He reasoned that there was no point in bothering to do his class work at all, since this wasn't real or at least wasn't where he belonged. If he didn't have class with the Marauders, Harry doubted he'd go at all. When he was in class, Harry still kept his thoughts focused on returning to his time. He had even magically removed the covers from his school books and reattached them to his books on time so he could read them when others were around.

Despite dedicating majority of his waking hours researching, Harry had gotten absolutely no where. He quickly realized that though time travel seemed like a simple enough concept the actual details of how it worked were extremely complicated. The only real information he had found had been quite concerning.

In 1899, the book stated, the Department of Mysteries conducted its most infamous experiment in time travel that only became public because of how awful the consequences had been. A woman by the name of Eloise Mintumble had been sent back in time almost 500 years for a period of only five days. When they finally were able to bring her back to the present, she had aged the full 497 years and consequently died immediately upon returning.

The book went on to say that due to her interactions with those around her, at least twenty-five descendants of people she met became un-born and time continued to fluctuate after her arrival: Tuesday lasted a full two and a half days where as Thursday only last four hours. Since the experiments, the Ministry had put in a great deal of regulations and laws on time travel and the study of time travel.

This information only caused Harry's heart to sink. His presence in the past at that moment could be resulting in the un-birth of hundreds of people. He had also been at Hogwarts for almost a month now, far longer than Eloise's relatively short stay. The only things that was mildly reassuring was that he had not been sent back as far in time and that she had been successfully retrieved from the past — except that she had died from aging.

Apart from the negative news, Harry also was able to take away two new places that might be worth visiting: St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries where Eloise had died and the Department of Mysteries.

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

"MUM!" Ron screamed, his vision blurring as he stared at the parchment. It was his hand writing, he would recognize is anywhere, it had to be him, no one else would have sent something like this.

"MUM!" Ron screamed again, swaying on the spot. Hasty footsteps thundered down the old wooden staircase as not only Mrs. Weasley, but Hermione, Ginny, Fred, George, and Remus all appeared rushing down. Several members of the order also quickly appeared, bursting through a door that led to the downstairs kitchen where they met frequently.

"What's wrong," Mrs. Weasley shouted with worry as she raced towards him. He couldn't respond, he just shook his head and shoved the parchment towards her. She glanced at it and then looked up at him again.

"What is it?" Hermione asked, taking the parchment. Her eyes widened.

"Harry?" she whispered. Ron nodded weakly. "Did you see him?"

"N-No," Ron stuttered, sinking into the couch as his knees buckled. Remus took the opportunity to go back to his room to grab some chocolate. "The fireplace, there were purple flames — "

"Purple?" Kingsley Shacklebolt said raising an eyebrow. Ron just nodded. The door to the kitchen banged open again and in walked Alastor Moody, a heavy clunking noise identifying him before he had even come into the room.

"What's going on?" Moody said gruffly.

"I was about to leave when the fireplace lit up with purple flames, this came out." Ron took the parchment from Hermione and handed it to Moody. "It's Harry's handwriting. I know it's his."

"No one should be able to contact this building through the Floo network except from the Burrow and Dumbledore's office." He growled. "This building isn't safe anymore."

"Where else can we go?" Mrs. Weasley said bluntly. "This is the safest building for us, there is no other place with as many wards."

"No where's safe." Moody muttered.

"We need to contact Dumbledore." Kingsley stated.

"I'm not sure if even he will know what to do now." Moody responded, his magical blue eye whirling.

o0o0o0o0o0o

Within the next few hours, there was such a great deal of confusion that Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and the twins had taken to sitting in the living room, bags at their feet, and just trying to not get in anyones way. Moody had immediately taken the fireplace off the Floo network and then had it boarded up for good measure ("Don't need these pesky heroes getting any ideas," he said, glaring at the Gryffindors). He had then ordered that everyone go get their things and begin packing. Mrs. Weasley frantically tried to convince him there was no where else to go, but he seemed to think traveling anywhere was safer than staying in one place.

Soon, Mr. Weasley as well as Charlie, Bill, Fleur, and Tonks returned to the house and the arguments of what to do continued. Fleur was the only one to agree with Moody, though she may have just hated staying in the old building. Everyone else firmly believed that though what had happened was disconcerting, they really had no other options.

Though the yelling matches that had in sued had quickly been moved to the kitchen, the teenagers could still hear vaguely what was going on.

"Where do you think he is?" Hermione whispered.

"I don't know, but he's somewhere, and we have to go find him." Ron said, repeating this thought for the hundredth time since they had arrived at the house of Black. "They need to stop arguing over where is safest for them to hide and go find him."

"Why would he only write hello?" Ginny asked, staring at the parchment that had been left on the table. "Why would he even write, 'it's me, Harry' or something?"

"It was actually rather smart of him not to," Hermione said. "If that parchment had ended up anywhere other than here and he had written anything more identifying it could have been very bad. The wrong people could have found him."

"Why can't we find him," Ron said his voice getting louder. "This isn't good enough!" He stood up and kicked the fireplace, quickly recoiling and wincing as he clutched his foot.

"Everyone's doing the best they can, there's really nothing el—" Hermione stated when suddenly, the fireplace lit up once more with green flames. The boards quickly burnt away revealing the same roaring fire Ron had seen before. The flames exploded, turning purple with shocks of blue.

Ron stumbled backward in horror and Hermione screamed as a bony skeleton hand clawed its way through the flames.


	10. No Where is Safe

Moody immediately burst through the door, followed close behind by the rest of the Order. He raised his wand and began shouting incantations none of the Gryffindors recognized. The flames seemed to be pushed back in on themselves and with it the skeleton hand was also forced backwards and disappeared through the smoke.

"Everyone get your things, now." Moody barked. He whipped out an empty bottle from his satchel and began muttering spells. Ron and Hermione both immediately grabbed their things and ran towards Moody, still in shock as to what had just happened. Ginny was in hysterics crying and refusing to move, resulting in Fred and George holding her and together moving her towards the wizard.

Mrs. Weasley wrapped her arms around all of her children, eyes wide and wand gripped so tightly her knuckles turned white. She tried to say soothing words to her youngest child, but Ginny only cried louder and shook harder.

"What was that thing?" Mr. Weasley shouted, dragging a trunk towards Moody.

"It was dark magic," he growled. "I told you we needed to leave but none of you listened." He turned to Mrs. Weasley.

"Here," he said, handing her the empty bottle. "This is going to take you to the Burrow for now. Until we are able to contact Dumbledore, we need to stay in places he can contact us. Preferably places where Death Eaters can't."

"Kingsley!" Moody barked. "Go with them, check the house for any dark magic before you let everyone inside."

"Arthur, my clock," Mrs. Weasley said, tears forming in the corners of her eyes as her husband passed the priceless possession to her. She glanced down at the hands only to see that nothing had changed.

"Only a few more seconds now, everyone grab on." Moody said, causing the family to move in closer so as everyone had a finger on the bottle.

"One, two, three —"

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

It was mid-November now, the bitter winds had begun to pick up more often and Quidditch practice was becoming less and less enjoyable as the weather fought against them. Even James groaned each evening after dinner, knowing that they all had to make their way to the pitch for practice. The team had been doing alright at games; Harry continued to be an amazing Seeker during games but during practices he rarely seemed to be paying attention. Everyone silently thought the same thing: just because he was so good didn't mean James should treat him so lightly. If any of them had hovered in one place for twenty minutes without realizing everyone had landed to discuss a new formation, James would have yelled and after repeated offenses even suspended them from the team. Everyone also seemed to realize that they needed Harry on the team more than they needed him to pay attention during practice. Everyone except —

"Look, Potter," Paige Elliot said with a frown, her arms crossed. "You need to get Williams focused. I don't come to practices to waste time trying to get someone else to participate."

"Paige, I've already tried talking to him —" James started with a sigh as he packed the Quidditch balls back into the trunk.

"No, you're captain, not him." Paige said sharply. "Stop letting him walk all over you. You treat him like he's bloody royalty."

"Hey, you watch your tone, you're not captain either." Sirius said glaring. "And Harry's the only reason we're doing so well this season, last game you were the one that missed that easy shot against Slytherin so if anyone needs more practice it's definitely not Harry, it's you."

Paige glared and immediately spun on her heel and headed back to the castle in a huff. Sirius scoffed before picking up the other end of the trunk and helping James bring it into the shed.

"She's a royal prat herself, isn't she?"

James nodded.

"But she does have a point, mate." Sirius said as they placed the trunk in the back of the shed with a thud. "Harry's seemed really out of it for the past few weeks, I think his relationship with that girl he won't tell us about isn't going well."

"Maybe… I saw the grade he got back on an essay for Transfiguration, it was not good. The thing is, he even explained the topic to _me_ and _I _got a better grade than he did." James said bewildered.

"He's just not focused on anything." Sirius muttered. "Or he's too focused on something else."

"Maybe he's depressed." James suggested as the two boys shouldered their brooms and began walking to the castle. "I would be depressed if I didn't have any family or any memories."

"Maybe… Or he's depressed because he has begun remembering things."

The two walked in silence for a while, deep in thought about their friend. As they neared the castle, they could just barely make out a red headed girl, bundled in black robes with a red and gold Gryffindor scarf. Sirius grinned.

"How are things with Evans?"

James looked away with a small smile.

"I dunno, mate. Things have been getting better I think. Ever since I stopped bothering Snape so much and playing pranks — " Sirius grasped his heart, letting out of a dramatic moan of sorrow " — she's been a lot nicer. I mean she was always nice, but now she doesn't ignore me when I try to talk to her. She even suggested we worked together in Herbology because we spend so much time doing Head Boy and Girl stuff that we might as well do the homework together too. Can you believe that?" James smiled. "Can you believe that she, Lily Evans, asked me, her sworn enemy, to do Herbology homework together? I didn't even know that she was so good at it, she seems to know everything. She loves plants so much. I never even knew."

Sirius raised an eyebrow as James stared forward vacantly, a soft smile on his face.

"There's so much about her that I don't know, and yet the more I learn the more I can't stop thinking about her. She's not just beautiful, she's… everything."

James jumped as Sirius began making loud gagging noises and pulling disgusted faces.

"Have you been drinking spiked pumpkin juice? Who snuck a love potion into your food?"

James just laughed as they walked up the stone steps. Sure enough, it was Lily waiting for him at the top of the steps. The three stood together for a few moments, Lily and James shyly not making eye contact. Sirius rolled his eyes and muttered something about going to the kitchens before strolling into the castle.

"So, how was practice?" Lily asked. James's smile widened. She had even been taking an interest in Quidditch, something she had always so vehemently thought to be a waste of time.

"It was good, thanks." James responded with a goofy grin. "How was Herbology Club?"

"It was good," Lily looked down at her feet, her cheeks turning pink. She cleared her throat and looked back at James.

"So, do you want to go to the meeting?"

"I have to shower still," James said, gesturing to his muddy robes. "Isn't a bit early, anyways?"

Lily blushed and began mumbling about how she hadn't noticed, but it seemed that she had wanted to spend the extra time together.

"Let's go back to the tower and I'll shower really quickly and then we can head down, maybe we can go over some Herbology as well?"

"Yeah!" Lily said brightly, before quickly composing herself. "Yes, that sounds like a good idea." Together, the unlikely pair walked through the huge oak doors.

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

The Weasley family as well as Hermione and Kingsley fell to the ground roughly, none of them able to keep their balanced.

"You all stay outside," Kinglsey said, standing and brushing off his robes.

"I'll come with you," Mr. Weasley said, helping his wife up who also nodded. The adults walked slowly towards the building. Silently, Bill, Charlie, and Fleur also decided to help search the home and set up protective barriers.

Before they could reach the building however, the Burrow burst into flames with such strength that the force sent everyone back onto the ground.

Quickly, Kingsley jumped to his feet and began running to the Burrow, shouting instructions noe one could hear over the roar of the flames and loud cracks of Death Eaters arriving.

"_Avada Kedavra!" _a gruff voice shouted, sending a green jet of light at Kingsley and hitting him square in the back.

Mr. and Mrs. Weasley began running back to the group, sending spells at the hundreds of Death Eaters that begun to swarm the field outside their home. Screams and shouts echoed throughout the chaos. Everyone was running in different directions, scattering and confused.

Hermione couldn't keep track of everyone, she tried to shout but before she could say anything Fred and George sprinted across the field to aid their parents. She saw Fleur crouched on the ground crying as she fought back Death Eaters, her body over Bill's motionless one. Before Ginny and Ron could run towards their fallen brother, Hermione grabbed onto both of their arms roughly and disapparated.


	11. Hogsmeade

The trio hit the ground hard, and immediately began tumbling. They all desperately clawed at the ground, but there was no grass to grab onto, only dirt and rocks. Eventually they reached the bottom where Ron ended up slamming into an enormous tree trunk and flopping to the side unconscious.

"Ron!" Ginny croaked as she crawled towards him and shook his shoulders. He didn't respond. "Hermione, he's not awake, Hermione!" Ginny turned and saw that Hermione too was unconscious. Panic swept through Ginny as she desperately looked about. They were in the middle of the woods, no where Ginny had been before. Before them was a huge dirt cliff, which was where Hermione had in her haste to leave unfortunately apparated to.

Ginny twisted her head around as she heard a sharp crack of a twig breaking behind her. She sat frozen on the ground, clutching Ron's arm. It wasn't safe to sit in the open where they were. But how could she get anywhere else? She couldn't drag one let alone both Hermione and Ron very far.

Ginny shakily pulled her wand from her pocket and stood slowly, keeping her back bent so she would not be as easily noticed. As quietly as she could she walked a few steps away from Ron and Hermione and glanced around.

Another loud crack caused Ginny to jump and raise her wand in fright. It sounded like someone had apparated. Quickly Ginny rushed back to Ron and Hermione. She grabbed Ron under his shoulders and dragged him a little ways into the woods, where she left him leaning against a tree in-between its thick roots. She then went back and dragged Hermione to Ron. Ginny sat in between the two and reached over into Hermione's enchanted bag, in which she found thick black winter robes.

Her hands shook as she frantically wrapped herself and Ron and Hermione in the robes, hoping it would be enough to hide them for the time being. She pulled the two Gryffindors close to her as she shivered in fear.

o0o0o0o0o0o

"What do you mean you're not going to Hogsmeade!" Sirius cried incredulously, slamming his fist on the breakfast table, almost causing Remus's cup of tea to topple over.

"I don't know, it doesn't interest me much." Harry said with a shrug. "Besides, I have plenty of homewo —"

"Harry, you're _always_ doing 'homework'," James said making air quotes. "We've been talking and even Remus thinks you need to take a break and do something fun. You don't seem to even be interested in Quidditch anymore."

"Blasphemy!" Sirius shouted raising his fork.

It was true though. Harry really wasn't particularly interested in Quidditch anymore. Now he understood what those books meant when they said so many people went insane while time travelling. He had no idea where he was, if what he was experiencing was real or if he was asleep in some dungeon under Voldemort's spell. For all he knew, none of his actions mattered and he was already dead. Though he continued to search for a way home, his research had slowed to a snail's pace and he found himself spending hours trying to make his way through a single page.

"Too be honest, Harry, we're a little concerned." Remus admitted quietly. "We know you've been through a lot, things you may or may not even remember, but you can't dwell on them."

"C'mon, come with us to Hogsmeade, you'll like it." James said with an encouraging grin. "Have you even ever been there before? Do you remember it?"

Harry paused before shaking his head.

"No, I don't remember it." Harry lied. James's grin widened.

"We'll take you! It will be great! Wait until you see Honeydukes, you'll love it there."

After breakfast, the Marauders and Harry headed back up to their room to get ready to go out. Harry couldn't help but notice there was far much more arguing over who was using the mirror and changing of robes.

"Er, are we going somewhere special?" Harry asked.

"No," Sirius said as ruffled his hair for the millionth time in the mirror. "What would make you think that?"

"I don't know, maybe because all of you are acting as if we're going to a formal dinner with the Minister of Magic." Harry said raising an eyebrow.

"Well, we thought maybe it would be nice to ask a few girls to come with us." James said grinning, though Harry could sense he was slightly nervous. "I invited Evans."

"Maria's coming too." Sirius said wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

"And Georgia Damble from Ravenclaw." Remus said smiling a little.

"I even took the privilege of inviting someone to accompany you on this fine day," Sirius smirked as he tousled his hair again.

"Sirius…" Harry warned.

"Don't worry, she's lovely. Her name is Amabel Bellamy." said Sirius.

"Sirius," Harry groaned. "Why did you do this?"

"We know things haven't been going well with your mystery girl, and it's about time you tried meeting someone else." Sirius said. Harry opened his mouth to protest, but Sirius was hearing none of it. Soon Harry found himself standing in the entrance hall of Hogwarts waiting for all the girls to arrive. Both Lily and Maria were already waiting downstairs by the time they got there, and the group all spoke together. Harry was rather disappointed, however, when Georgia and Amabel arrived, resulting in the group breaking into pairs as they walked towards Hogsmeade.

"So, Harry," Amabel said in overly honeyed voice. "How are your classes going?" Harry glanced over at the Ravenclaw as they walked. She had curly brown hair and the reminded him a lot of Hermione's, but hers was too tightly curled and full of bows. Also unlike Hermione, her face was overly painted in makeup to the point where Harry could see that her face was several shades more orange than her neck.

"They're going ok," Harry said awkwardly looking away. The two continued to walk in silence, which Harry could tell Anabel was rather annoyed about. As they walked, two of Anabel's friends, Antonia and Henrietta, approached them and began asking them about their date, much to Harry's horror. The three girls chatted over enthusiastically the rest of the way there, making Harry extremely grateful when they finally reached the village and caught up with the rest of the group.

Everyone seemed to agree that they should first go to Honeydukes and then the Three Broomsticks. Anabel whined loudly that she would much rather go to Madam Puddifoot's tea shop, Antonia and Henrietta agreeing and nodding along, their matching curly, bow-filled hair bouncing as they did.

Before anyone else could say anything, Harry began walking away ushering the rest of the group along saying they'd meet up with them later and he hoped they enjoyed their tea. No one argued against his decision to try and escape the girls; as soon as they were out of earshot, Sirius began apologizing for his poor choice in a date ("Next time, mate, I know this really good snog—" Sirius said, earning a sharp jab from Maria and Lily's elbows).

Without Anabel there, the group seemed to decidedly make the outing less like separate dates, as the original idea had been to help Harry anyways. They all spent almost an hour in Honeydukes, sampling all the candies available and purchasing as much as they could carry. Harry was very interested in all the sweets on display, mainly because many were no longer sold in his time or had changed their names and wrappers since he had gone to the shop. James and Sirius led Harry through the whole store, making him try every ridiculous type they could find, though they were not successful in making him eat the more questionable Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans.

They then walked to the Three Broomsticks, though they had great difficulty keeping Sirius from entering Zonko's ("Blasphemy!" he cried as Remus and James dragged him in the other direction). Once inside the the pub, the group squished together at a small round table and ordered a round of Butterbeers. Harry counted help but smile as he watched the group laugh and talk light heartedly, sharing stories about their year so far and about the classes they couldn't wait to get a break from.

He especially enjoyed watching his parents, who seemed to be becoming closer and closer each time he glanced at them. At one point, Harry could have sworn he saw James's hand resting on top of Lily's, but when he did a double take to check they had both moved their hands off the table and were looking away from each other blushing. There was so much love and happiness at the table, Harry couldn't tell if it was the Butterbeer warming his heart or the great company. If only his own friends could have been there to share it with him.

As the sun began to go down, the group paid for the drinks and food and left the pub. They trudged through newly fallen snow, pulling their cloaks tightly around themselves as the bitter wind tried to pry them off. The weather did not dampen any of their spirits, however. The Butterbeer had left all of them feeling cheerful, and they continued to talk and laugh the rest of the way to the castle.

In the entrance, the group said goodbye to Georgia who headed back to the Ravenclaw tower. There was a fair amount of interrogating of Remus about his feelings towards her on their way to their own tower, though he admitted nothing. After getting into the Common Room, the Gryffindors took off their wet cloaks and laid them in front of the fire. They stayed downstairs for a while, continuing to chat and laugh. James eventually wound up with his arm around Lily's shoulders, who did not object or draw attention to his actions. Sirius and Marie stood in front of the fire, telling wild stories about hilarious pranks they had either witnessed or conducted - also something Lily did not object to. Instead, everyone roared with laughter until their faces went red and tears leaked down their faces.

Eventually, the group began to get tired, and the girls said goodnight and headed up to the girls' dormitories as the boys headed to their own tower. Harry couldn't hold back the permanent grin on his face as the four friends climbed the steps to their room. He had been so stressed and caught up in getting back that he had forgotten what an opportunity he had been given, and though he was right not to get caught up in it and ignore his need to return he also needed to treasure the time he had with these wonderful people. With his family.

Finally, they reached their dormitory, and Harry followed the Marauders into the room and almost immediately froze.

"Hello," Peter squeaked, closing his trunk and standing up. "How was Hogsmeade?"


	12. Breakthrough

The next few days were unpleasant to say the least. As soon as Harry saw Peter, he immediately turned around and went straight back downstairs and exited Gryffindor tower. The Marauders did not see him all of Sunday, nor did he show up Monday morning for classes. No one had seen or heard from the mysterious boy since Saturday night.

Harry's strange reaction to seeing Peter left him in a nervous wreck; every few minutes he would ask someone what they knew about Harry or where he was from or if he may have known him from somewhere. Everyone told him the same story of how Harry lost his memory and therefore no one knew much about him at all, which just caused Peter to twitch harder.

"Why are you so scared, Peter?" James asked as Peter peered around a corner before darting across the hall towards their next class.

"I, er, I, I don't trust him!" Peter spluttered out. "He's probably a-a-a-a Death Eater!"

"Don't be ridiculous," Remus said frowning. "What would make you think that?"

"Because!" Peter squeaked with wide eyes. "He's been missing for days! He could be up to anything! He's probably helping Death Eaters into the castle right now!"

"You were gone for a month and no one accused you have being a Death Eater," Sirius pointed out. Peter visibly paled.

"That was different, I-I was with my grandmother." Peter said, but quickly running ahead of the group thus effectively ending the conversation.

"Have either of you seen Harry today?" Lily asked later that evening as the boys came down the stairs and into the common room on their way to dinner.

"No…" James sighed.

"I'll meet you downstairs, I'm starved!" Peter blurted out before anxiously racing through the portrait hole.

"And what's up with him?" Lily said raising an eyebrow.

"He's been acting like that ever since he got back, it's getting really annoying." Sirius grumbled, sitting in an armchair across from Lily. James sat down next to her on the couch.

"I asked him about how his grandmother was doing, and he couldn't give me a straight answer." Remus said, eyebrows knitted together in confusion. "He said stumbled over a few different phrases before simply saying there was no way to know for sure before running away."

"Every time I approach him, he immediately starts twitching as if he's fighting every reflex to sprint in the opposite direction." James said rolling his eyes.

"Maybe we're being insensitive," Remus said quietly. "Maybe something really bad happened at home and he's just… Not ready, to tell us yet."

Everyone looked at Remus doubtfully for a few moment, after which he simply shrugged before taking a seat in a second armchair.

"Anyways," Lily said, redirecting the conversation. "Do you know where Harry's been?"

"No, we honestly haven't seen him since Saturday night." James answered honestly. "I think he doesn't like Peter very much, but I don't know why."

"Do you think he remembered something?" Lily wondered out loud.

"It sure would explain why they're acting so strange." Sirius said staring into the fire.

At that moment, the portrait swung open and Harry walked in, arms full of books. He walked past the group without a word, seemingly not noticing any of them.

"Er, Harry?" James said. Harry jumped, causing the books to go toppling across the floor. Harry immediately fell to the floor and began gathering them up as fast as he could.

"Oh, hey everyone, how's everyone's day been?" Harry asked loudly as he frantically picked up the books. Sirius had crossed the room to help, but as soon as he picked up a book, Harry ripped it from his hands with a forced grin.

"Well, have a good evening everyone!" And with that, Harry ascended the staircase to the boys dormitory. Sirius turned around and looked at the blank faces of all his friends.

"What the hell just happened?"

o0o0o0o0o0o

Harry had been so absorbed with anger the past three days that the only way he could release any of his energy was to research. He had barely slept and had only left the Room of Requirement to go to the kitchens. His hatred of Peter had fueled quite the remarkable discovery.

A book had revealed vague steps on how to make a potion that was intended to speed up boring activities, such as household chores, by making time go by faster. It was likely that this book was still accessible after the Ministry's crack down on time travel because the author had not directly referred to it as such, but the more Harry reread the chapter the more he realized that was exactly what it was.

However, Harry wasn't sure about whether the potion was reliable or not. Despite his poor understanding of potions, he had still spotted some ambiguous sections that could have led the mixture to go seriously wrong. But he had somewhere to start.

Harry began searching for ways to speed up time even more, and to extend the potion to last much longer than the recommended two hours. As he researched, he pushed back the thoughts which reminded him of just how dangerous this could be. He didn't entirely care if his potion failed and he ended up aging 497 years and dying in St. Mungo's, but he did realize that he cared about whether he caused un-births or other such disasters. He had to make sure the potion only affected him. Somehow.

o0o0o0o0o0o0o

"Are you coming, Remus?" James asked, as the rest of the Gryffindors headed out of the common room to go to dinner.

"Yeah, one second," Remus called, walking across the common room. "Go on without me, I think Harry forgot one of his books." James shrugged before leaving the room, letting the portrait swing closed behind him.

Remus bent down and reached underneath one of the small study tables near the dormitory stairs. He glanced at the cover, recognizing it as their charms textbook. But it felt heavier than his — perhaps it wasn't Harry's. Remus flipped the book open, looking for his name in the front cover.

Remus paused, staring at the inside title page — "'What Year is It?': A History of Time Travel."

"Remus?" A voice called behind him. Remus spun around, quickly straightening his back and closing the book in one fluid motion.

"Oh, hey Harry, I saw this under the table, I think it might be yours." Remus said with a polite smile, handing him the book.

"Oh, yeah, thanks," Harry said hastily, taking the book and stuffing it into his bag.

"Are you going to dinner?" Remus asked.

"Oh, no, I have a lot of work to do so I was just going to go to the kitchens to grab something."

"Oh alright. Well, I hope we see you again later tonight, you should probably get a decent night's rest." Remus said calmly before exiting the common room, leaving Harry behind looking nervous.

o0o0o0o0o0o

Ginny let out a sigh of relief when she first felt Hermione stir next to her.

"Hermione," Ginny whispered, coaxing her awake. Hermione's eyes fluttered half open before quickly widening. She twisted around and grasped onto Ginny's arm.

"Ron?" she croaked, causing her to cough. She reached into her small purse and pulled out a flask of water which she quickly downed.

"Hermione, he's still not awake, I didn't know what to do." Ginny said tearfully. Hermione reached across Ginny and pressed her fingers against his wrist.

"His pulse is fine," she said in barely a whisper. "Did you see any blood?"

"No, but he hit his head on a tree." Ginny responded fearfully.

"I don't know much about head injuries," Hermione admitted, making Ginny's heart sink. "We need to get back."

"But to where? The Burrow was… on fire…" The memories crept back into Ginny's mind: the smell of the smoke, the sound of Fleur crying…

"St. Mungo's would be the most ideal…" Hermione said as she rummaged through her bag. "But I don't know if I can apparate anywhere right now, I don't think I have the energy, especially to carry both of you with me."

"Where did you take us?" Ginny asked, accepting another blanket which Hermione ushered to wrap around Ron.

"The first place that came to mind that no one would find us, I was aiming for a muggle camp ground that I went on vacation with my parents to, but I think I was off. I don't know how far away, though."

"What… What should we do now?" Ginny asked tentatively. She was afraid Hermione wouldn't have an answer.

"We need to get Ron help. We need to get shelter." Hermione said, slowly standing and wincing as her bruises burned.

With the help of Ginny, Hermione wrapped Ron tightly in the blankets and then carefully levitated him in front of the pair of them. Even this small amount of magic quickly took its toll on Hermione, so they were only able to walk five or so minutes before Hermione couldn't hold him anymore.

"We'll have to set up some wards here, until we both have enough energy to get back." Ginny nodded in agreement. As Hermione went about casting spells on the surrounding area to protect them from unwanted visitors, Ginny began unpacking Hermione's purse and magically assembling a small tent that was far larger on the inside. Ginny used the last of her energy to levitate Ron into the tent by herself and lower him onto a cot before walking into the kitchen area and making some tea.

When Hermione came in, she looked absolutely exhausted and as if she might black out again. Ginny quickly pushed a cup of steaming hot tea into her hands, as well as some chocolate she had found in one of the cupboards.

"Do you think he's going to be alright?" Ginny whispered, watching her brother's chest slowly rise and fall under the thick blankets.

"I think so…" Hermione sighed. She set her tea gently back on the table and reached down into her purse again, pulling out several vials of colored potions. She eventually selected a pale blew liquid and using a pipette she carefully dropped several beads of potion into Ron's mouth.

"It's a general healing potion," Hermione said, putting the stopper back in. "If he doesn't wake up in a few hours, we should be concerned." Ginny nodded numbly.

"For now though," Hermione said, sitting down and untying her boots. "I think we should also get some sleep."

Hermione glanced up and was met with Ginny's fearful and doubtful eyes.

"Don't worry, Gin," she said reassuringly. "We'll be safe here." Though as the words left her lips and Ginny nodded once more, they both knew that simply wasn't true of any place anymore.


	13. It's the Holidays

HI EVERYONE! Sorry it's literally been weeks since I updated.. It might even have been a month but it was because of college and finals and chemistry and life but now I'm on vacation so I'll have plenty of time to get back into the swing of things and obsessively updating this story! Good news for all of you!

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It was finally December, and the Christmas season had clearly arrived at Hogwarts as overnight the castle had become decorated in wreaths and garlands and gold and red trinkets. The huge traditional Christmas tree had been erected in its usual place in the Great Hall and everyone's spirits were high despite trying to handle their anxiety as they cram for their last exams before the holidays. That, and figuring out what to get certain redheads.

"I have no ideas." James said miserably, setting his head down on the breakfast table with a heavy thud.

"Don't be so _defeatist_," Sirius said, holding his tea with his little finger sticking out and taking a delicate sip before puffing out his chest in pride. Remus raised an eyebrow at him.

"You realize these are words you should already be using in regular speech, right?" James said, lifting his head slightly off the table.

"No? If a word has three or more syllables, then it's officially a big word and _therefore_ -" Sirius raised his eyebrows for further emphasis "- it is impressive."

"Sirius, I could list a hundred words with three or more syllables that were not impressive." James said with one eyebrow raised. "Therefore only has two syllables anyway."

Sirius paused before groaning.

"Back to the drawing board," he muttered, stirring his tea. "I will crack the code… Some day…"

Remus and James rolled their eyes.

"Why are you even trying to figure this out?" Remus said.

"Why, my good friends, the ladies love a sophisticated gentleman." Sirius puffed out his chest again.

"Can we please get back to the topic of what to get - oh hey Lily!" James blurted out a little too loudly.

"Uhm, hi," Lily smiled awkwardly. "Here are the flyers for the Christmas ball, try and pass them to some of the Prefects, I already posted one in the Gryffindor common room." She handed the pieces of parchment to James before walking away towards her group of friends.

"There's going to be a Christmas ball this year?" Sirius asked curiously.

"Yeah, Lily wanted to do something special, and we thought it would be something a lot of people could enjoy." James explained. "We were thinking about having some kind of gift exchange or other Christmas elements but to be honest we haven't planned much of the details."

"Why don't you plan a surprise for Lily at the ball as her gift?" Remus suggested.

"Remus, you are a genius." James said grinning. "But, what kind of surprise?"

"I don't know," Remus said with a shrug.

"Yes you do," James said frowning. "She's always been better friends with you."

"Well, I mean, it's your gift to her, she will be much more impressed if you come up with it yourself."

James put his head back down on the table. Remus sighed.

"She likes…" Remus began, ushering for James to finish the sentence.

"Pranks?" Sirius offered, gesturing with his fork filled with egg.

"No, Sirius," Remus groaned.

"Quidditch?" Sirius tried again.

"Can you live up to your name and be serious for once. Of course she wouldn't like something Quidditch related." James said frowning.

"Well, why the hell not, it's the greatest sport to ever be created! It has everything!" Sirius dropped his fork on his plate and folded his arms. "Women. They're so difficult."

"I heard that," Lily said as she walked past, swatting him the back of the head of more flyers. Maria also took the liberty to hit him round the head with her potions book.

"Do you think Maria will go with me to the ball?" Sirius asked suddenly as he watched the two girls exit the Great Hall.

"Maybe," Remus said smirking. "If you don't offend her too many times before the end of the month."

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

"Hey, Harry!" Remus called, rushing down the hallway. Harry turned slightly, and then decided to stop and wait for him.

"Hey, I've been calling after you for a while now," Remus said out of breath.

"Oh, sorry," Harry said tiredly. "I didn't hear you."

"I haven't seen you in a few days now," Remus said, walking side by side with Harry. "How have you been?"

"Alright," Harry said with a small shrug. Remus sighed.

"Harry, I don't mean to invade your privacy, I know you're probably going through things that I can't begin to understand, but…" Remus paused, glancing over at Harry worriedly. "It's the holidays. I know you don't remember your family or your other friends, but you have me, and Sirius and James and Lily. You'd have Peter too if you'd give him a chance."

Harry's eyes narrowed. That traitor.

"We all miss you Harry," Remus went on. "It's like we always have someone missing from our group; Peter was gone for a month and now you're never around…"

At that moment Harry realized that Peter, that awful, horrible excuse for a human being, was spending more time with his family than he was. It made Harry's blood boil, but just as fast as he felt the heat rush to his face, he felt it ebb away. His hatred of Peter was getting between him and his family. Despite what would happen in the future, he was not taking advantage of what was going on now. He could actually get to spend a Christmas with his family like he always wanted.

"And you know," Remus said, glancing over again at Harry to see if he was even paying attention. "James was talking earlier about how you're still invited to his house for the holidays. Sirius lives with him, you know. And I'll be coming over and I think Lily and Maria are also visiting."

Remus stopped walking and gently touched Harry's shoulder so he would also stop.

"It wouldn't be Christmas without you mate."

Harry looked down without a word.

"I mean, yeah, I'd love to visit James's house and meet his family." Harry mumbled.

"I don't think you'll get away with just visiting for one day," Remus chuckled. "James and Sirius are both pretty set on having you stay for the entire holiday."

"Alright," Harry said, unable to suppress is grin. "I'll come."

"Don't tell me, tell them," Remus said smiling. "They'll be really, really happy."

Together, they made their way to charms (a class Harry hadn't attended in almost a week and a half), a walk filled with lighthearted conversation about James's problems finding a gift for Lily and Sirius's most recent antics. Harry knew now that being with his family was far more important than not being near Peter. He would deal with him later.

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KAY here it is let me know what you think, sorry it's short but I wanted to get something up — I'm already working on the next chapter! yay!


	14. For Harry

Ginny awoke to the sound of her brother groaning. She immediately twisted out of her cot and scrambled over to his side.

"Ron?" She called, anxiously unwrapping the blankets so she could hold onto his arm. Hermione heard Ginny getting up and she quickly went to the kitchen and came back with a glass of water.

"Help me sit him up," Hermione said, sitting down the glass of water. Together, the two grasped Ron under his arms and gently hoisted him upright. His head lolled to the side slightly and face screwed up in maybe pain or confusion.

"Mione?" He croaked as he fought to open his eyes.

"Yes, Ron, it's me," Hermione said picking up the water again. "Here, drink this."

She held the glass up to his lips and tilted it. Ron drank some before coughing, causing Hermione to take it away.

"What happened?" Ron asked holding his head.

"The Burrow was under attack…" Hermione began, her throat tightening. "I disapparated with you two but I didn't land where I wanted. You hit your head. How do you feel? Are you dizzy?"

"No, not really, just a headache." Ron muttered, taking the water from Hermione and drinking the rest of it.

"Let me go get some healing potions. You should really go to St Mungo's but it will have to do for now." Hermione said, standing and walking across the room.

"Ginny," Ron said, stiffly turning his head so he was looking at his little sister. "Have you heard from mum and dad?"

"No…" Ginny said, her voice almost too soft to hear. Ron looked away again.

"Here you go Ron," Hermione said, handing him a glass with the same potion she'd given him earlier. "Try to drink all of it, I don't want to waste any."

Ron downed the entire thing and almost immediately his eyes began to droop.

"Did you put a sleeping potion in this?" Ron mumbled with difficulty as he fought to stay awake.

"No, it's a side effect of the potion, healing is best done in your sleep." Hermione said, and ,with Ginny's help, she lowered him back down so he could sleep more comfortably. "Don't worry, if we hear anything from the Order, we'll wake you up right away."

It only took a few more seconds before Ron was sound asleep once more. The two girls walked into the kitchen and began making breakfast.

"Do you think we should have given Ron something to eat before we gave him the potion?" Ginny asked anxiously as she helped Hermione bring the food items to the table and took a seat across from her.

"No, it'll be alright. He should only be asleep for a few hours, and we can give him something then." Hermione said, trying her best to speak warmly and smile. "It'll be alright Ginny, we can go to St. Mungo's later today, if anything that will be the best place to find your parents because well…"

Hermione took a shuddering breath.

"Kingsley." Ginny stated blankly. Hermione nodded.

"They'll probably also think we're there." Hermione said.

"But Hermione… Is St. Mungo's safe?" Ginny asked, tears forming in the corners of her eyes. Hermione put her hand over Ginny's.

"You know Ron and I will do everything to keep you safe." Hermione said in a level tone. She squeezed Ginny's hand and their eyes met.

"And so will your parents." Hermione went on. "We're all here for each other and our greatest concern is everyone else's safety. And when we find them again, we can continue looking for Harry. In fact, out of everyone, he cares the most about everyone else's safety. He's probably already out there somewhere looking to help us."

Ginny gave a watery smile before brushing away her tears.

"I miss him so much." Ginny said, her voice wavering a bit. "It's been so long since we last saw him. I wish I had something more than just a photograph to remember him by."

Ginny shakily reached into her pocket and pulled out a folded worn photograph, which she opened up and propped up against the small milk jug. The two girls stared at the photo, each longing to return to the time the picture was taken. Harry, Ron, and Ginny were all in their Quidditch robes, and Hermione was standing next to them wearing all red and gold. They all had their arms across each other's shoulders and were laughing and cheering. It had been taken right after the first game of the season and Gryffindor had just won.

"We used to be so carefree…" Ginny said, but then paused. "Well, relatively. I don't think any of us have been carefree since we met Harry. We were all so naive to what was going on around us. And Harry… Harry wasn't even carefree before he learned about our world…"

"After this is over, we can all be at peace. But none of us can when Voldemort is still around. We have to think selflessly." Hermione said, but she too looked longingly at the photograph. "There are thousands of lives in danger by Voldemort being around. And we're one of the many who are able to help protect those who can't."

Ginny nodded.

"Harry's always the one to save the day, but without him here, I guess we'll just have to step in for awhile." Ginny said, a wave of bravery flooding her body. She picked up her glass of pumpkin juice and held it up.

"We'll do everything we can to stop Voldemort." Ginny said, her voice stronger than it had been in weeks. "For Harry."

"For Harry," Hermione agreed, raising her glass as well.

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

"To Harry!" Sirius cheered, sloshing Firewhiskey everywhere as the entire Gryffindor common room roared with praise. Gryffindor had just finished it's best Fall season of Quidditch yet, and many had agreed that it was all thanks to their astounding new Seeker.

"Ya know mate," Sirius said, throwing his arm clumsily over Harry's shoulders. "When I first met you, you were just a little boy, lost in this big world, but now, I've made you a star, mate. A STAR." Harry couldn't help but laugh as Sirius swayed about, throwing his bottle of Firewhiskey up into the air each time he said 'star'.

"I hope Sirius isn't getting too much for you," Remus said, smiling slightly. "Perhaps he's had enough Firewhiskey for one night."

"He's not bothering me, no, but I would probably agree about him having had enough." Harry chuckled as Sirius walked into another table. Remus rushed up to him and began a somewhat heated conversation about Sirius giving him the bottle.

"You've had enough —"

"YOU CAN'T TAKE IT FROM ME," Sirius howled as if Remus was trying to kidnap his only child.

"Sirius, calm down—"

"But MOOONY," Sirius sang, stumbling away from Remus. "Moooony with eye's as big as the MOOOON-Y."

James couldn't himself as he fell to the floor and rolled about laughing at his friend. Harry also laughed hysterically, clutching his sides as Sirius continued to stagger about the room serenading Moony while taking swigs of his Firewhiskey.

An hour or so later, the rest of the Gryffindors who had been celebrating had gone to bed and the only ones left were the Marauders and Harry. Harry helped Remus drag Sirius up the stairs, followed close behind by James who was still cracking up over Sirius's stray comments.

"You have lovely hands, Remy, simply _divine._" Sirius slurred as he inspected Remus's fingernails.

"Thanks," Remus said, as James and Harry burst out laughing.

"No, really, Remus, you don't understand," Sirius said, trying to push Remus's hands closer to his face. "Look closer-ly!"

"Yes, they're wonderful, thank you," Remus responded, shaking Sirius's hands off of his own. James pushed to the front of the group and opened the door to their dormitory.

"Hey guys," Peter squeaked excitedly from his desk.

"Hey Peter," James responded, holding the door open for Sirius to be dragged in. Remus and Harry hauled Sirius across the room and dropped him onto his bed. Sirius was still wearing his Quidditch gear, so Harry took off his boots and Remus untied his arms pads.

"You're going to have a killer hangover tonight, mate." James said, leaning against one of Sirius's bed posts.

"Nooo," Sirius howled. "Moony'll make it stop. He smarter than the rest of you lot."

"Hey!" James said, swatting Sirius with a near by book.

"We were all smart enough not to drink enough Firewhiskey for four people," Harry commented, making everyone laugh.

"Why weren't you downstairs celebrating?" Remus asked Peter who had remained quiet since Harry had entered the room.

"Oh, well, y-you know, h-homework." Peter stuttered, clumsily grabbing at some parchment and waving it at the group.

"Oh, that's too bad," James said frowning. "Did you even come to the match? I didn't see you."

"Oh, yes, I was there, you were great!" Peter squeaked. "Well, it's time we all got to bed."

Everyone nodded, and began changing into their pajamas. Peter was about to get into bed when he noticed Harry was also changing into his pajamas instead of packing his bag up like he usually did.

"W-why aren't you leaving?" Peter blurted out.

"Uhm, I mean, I live here." Harry said lamely, trying his best to keep his temper.

"Yeah, Peter, that's a bit of a ridiculous question." James said raising an eyebrow. There was silence in the room as everyone stared at Peter and as Peter twitched nervously.

"I don't feel well!" Peter suddenly proclaimed and then bounded out of the room.

"There is something seriously wrong with him," James said in confusion as the door slammed shut behind Peter.

"Yeah," Harry said gruffly.

"Did you know Peter before you came here?" Remus asked Harry. "I mean, you probably don't remember, but we all couldn't help realizing how you react to his presence."

"I didn't know him, no." Harry said looking away. "I get a bad feeling from him though."

"We've known him since first year," James said walking over and putting a hand on Harry's shoulder. "He might be a little strange but he's always been loyal to us. And he's also going through things with his family right now that we don't know much about so you can't be too harsh on him."

Harry shrugged, unable to look his father in the eye.

"Don't worry, mate, once things get better for him you'll get to see how he normally is and then you'll know what we're talking about." Harry looked up at James's earnest smile. He felt like his heart was being torn out and ice was being washed over his whole body.

"Yeah, we'll see." Harry mumbled, before tearing himself away from James and getting into bed. He would have done anything in that moment to have flung his arms around his father and told him every single reason why he was so wrong about Peter but he couldn't. He knew that too much could be changed. He couldn't tell them he was from the future, he couldn't tell the Marauders that he was their son or their godson or their student. Or their enemy.

It hurt him like a thousand bricks being flung at his chest, but he knew he could not reveal himself. At least, not yet.


	15. Team Yeti

REVIEW. please. it's the giving christmas season. pleeeeease. All i want for christmas are reviews!

thanks

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Just as James had promised, Sirius woke everyone up early the next morning to the sound of him vomiting over the side of his bed into a nearby trashcan. Remus and James both got to work brewing a hangover remedy they had spent years perfecting, using Sirius as their test subject as he was usually the one in need of it. Harry tried to get his godfather some water but he took a few sips of it before groaning and clutching his stomach and head.

"Never again," Sirius mumbled as he leaned over the toilet.

"Yeah, we've never heard that one before." Remus said rolling his eyes and handing Sirius a mug of what looked like brown sludge. Harry wrinkled his nose at the substance, but Sirius immediately downed it without question.

"No, I'm a changed man," Sirius said, accepting a glass of water from Harry to wash down the foul taste.

"Uh huh, I'll try to remind you that you said that on Christmas." Remus said smirking, taking the mug and rinsing it out.

"I'm hungry," James said, exiting the bathroom. "Want to get breakfast?"

After everyone had showered and gotten dressed, the group left for breakfast. The hangover potion seemed to have helped a great deal because although Sirius didn't eat as much as usually did, he didn't seem to be overcome with nausea anymore.

As they ate breakfast, they talked about their plans for the day. Remus talked about how they all really should be studying for the midterms while Sirius kept talking about how they shouldn't waste the fresh snow that had fallen the night before.

"C'mon James, let's go outside." Sirius encouraged.

"I have to meet up with Lily to work on the Christmas ball plans," James responded.

"Harry?" Sirius said hopefully.

"I'd love to but I'm meeting with Remus, he's helping me with some studying." Harry said. Sirius looked down sadly.

"But I mean, we could go out for a bit." Harry suggested. Sirius perked up with excitement.

"Yeah, guys, it'll be really fun, c'mon!" Sirius said excitedly, barely able to stay in his seat.

"Well I would but…" James said trailing off. It was clear that he too would rather be outside than in the library missing out on the fun.

"Lily could come with us," Harry added.

"Hm.." James thought for a second. "Alright, I'll ask her whenever she gets down for breakfast."

"Yes!" Sirius said jumping up.

"Wait, Sirius, let's finish breakfast first!" Remus said laughing. Sirius sat back down and began eating as quickly as he could. Before they knew it Sirius had rushed them quickly back up to the dormitory to put on their winter cloaks and boots and gloves. Halfway to Gryffindor tower they ran into Lily and Maria and talked them into coming with them.

Soon, the group was outside, chasing after Sirius who immediately jumped into a snowbank. Everyone joined him and began rolling snowballs to start building a snowman.

Harry and Lily got down on their knees and packed small balls of snow together and began pushing them to make them larger. When they had made a fairly large snowball as a base and torso, they turned to look at the rest of the group who were all highly amused. Harry and Lily both did a double take in surprise when they realized that everyone else had already completely finished their snowmen.

"Guys, you know you can do magic right?" James said laughing, waving his wand at a heap of snow which magically packed itself together.

"Ours will come out better, we're making it with love and care." Lily responded, pretending to be angry. "Yours are all wonky and poorly shaped."

"What are you talking about? They're perfect." James said crossing his arms. "You're just jealous."

"Of those things? Not at all." Lily retorted with a playful glare.

"There's only one way to settle this." James said ominously.

"SNOWBALL FIGHT!" Sirius yelled at the top of his lungs from behind a bank of snow. He waved his wand above his head and a shower of snowballs shot across the sky and hit Lily, James, and Harry, also destroying their snowmen.

"No Sirius, I was going to say a snowman competition," James began but Lily put her hand on his shoulder.

"No James, there are more important things at hand now." Lily said as she levitated a snowball in front of James. He grinned.

"Battle stations!" James cried, waving his wand a creating a bank of snow to hide behind.

"Quick, Remus, take shelter!" Sirius shouted from behind his snowbank.

"Oh no, I'm not going to get involved — " Remus began, but was interrupted as James hit him in the back with a snowball.

"James!" Remus shouted indignantly.

"We need even teams, you and Maria can go on Sirius's team!" James responded, levitating another snowball. "I would take cover sooner rather that later, Moony - Team Potter is ready to strike!"

"I really don't want to — UGH JAMES!" Remus cried as he was hit with another snowball. "That's it!"

Remus waved his wand a tree branch above Team Potter shook and the snow that had previously been resting on it fell with a heavy thud on the players. As they tried to dig themselves out of the snow, Remus ran to Sirius's fort.

"Welcome to Team Snow Dog," Sirius said saluting Remus. Remus rolled his eyes as Maria giggled.

"Wait, that's a cooler name than Team Potter, quick what's another idea?" James said hurriedly.

"I'm bad at coming up with things on the spot," Harry admitted nervously.

"We should be Team Lily since we know who's the real leader here," Lily laughed.

"No, c'mon, think of something cool!" James said as another wave of snowballs flew over their heads.

"Uhm, Team Avalanche? That sounds threatening." Lily suggested.

"No wait I've got it, Team Abominable Snowmen!" James cried triumphantly.

"Uh, I don't think so," Lily said crossing her arms. "There is a snow _woman_ on this team as well."

"But its perfect, Abominable Snowmen are terrifying!"

From across the battlefield, Team Snow Dogs could hear a fair amount of bickering as well as some intermediate snickering from Harry.

"Oi, are you lot going to battle or not?" Sirius called.

"Uh yes," Harry shouted back. "We are Team uhm… Abominable Avalanche?"

"Team Yet-To-Be-Determined and we're going to kick your ass!" Lily interrupted.

"CHARGE!" James yelled, and the three waved their wands together sending almost a hundred snowballs across. Harry quickly realized wizard snowball fights were far more fun than muggle ones. When a team flung snowballs through the air, the opposite team would send either more snowballs to deflect them or cast spells to destroy them. They also began bewitching them, turning some into snowball versions of bludgers to help destroy in coming snowballs and turning others into enchanted snow creatures that would tunnels, scamper, and zoom through the air to attack other snowballs and attempt to tear down the opponents fort.

They spent several hours out in the snow, until finally Team Yet-to-Be-Determined (which had come to be shorted to Yeti) enchanted an army of mini snowmen who shot across the field and began clawing at the remaining fort until Sirius called a surrender. The groups shook hands and agreed it had been a close game.

Everyone unanimously agreed they were starving as they had missed lunch due to the snowball fight. The sun was setting as they walked back into the castle. In the Great Hall, they drank hot chocolate with candy canes as stirrers and ate a wonderfully prepared meal by the house elves.

Afterwards, the groups broke up, James and Lily heading to the Library to work on their Christmas ball, the details of which they wouldn't reveal to anyone. Everyone else decided to go back to the common room, where they all relaxed and casually reviewed for their transfiguration finals, which ended in great fits of laughter from Sirius's stories of his first year attempts at some impossibly difficult spells.

"Only one week mate, and we will be done with finals, enjoying the Christmas ball, and then finally we will be at home with Mr. and Mrs. Potter." Sirius said grinning as they climbed the stairs to head to bed.

"I can't wait," Harry said grinning.

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Finals came and went in one sweeping motion. It was a relatively stress-free even for Harry as he had already covered some of the material before and Remus had spent a large amount of time tutoring him. He felt a little guilty that Remus had spent so much of his time tutoring him, but at the same time he had got to bond a lot with his former professor. He had also gotten to spend a lot more time with Sirius who hung around them despite not being very interested in learning.

"But this is so _boring_, Remus." Sirius had complained, doodling aimlessly on a piece of parchment. Remus had taken to ignoring Sirius's comments as it had become obvious that he couldn't pay enough attention to sit through Harry and his several hour study sessions.

"Reeeeemus," Sirius called softly, still doodling. "_Reeeeeeeee_mus. Remus. Remus. Remus, Remus, Remus, Remus, Remus — "

"Can you _please_ stop, Sirius, we're trying to study and you're just being a distraction." Remus sighed, turning the page of his book.

"I'm a distraction?" Sirius said, looking up. He began tapping his quill.

"I'm a distraction," Sirius sung softly, slowly getting louder.

"Look at me!" He leaned over and flicked his quill in front of Remus's book. "You can't see what you want to see!"

"Stopping you from doing what you want to do, it's fun for me, but not for you!" Sirius ended, standing up with his arms spread wide and belting the last note. Neither Remus or Harry looked up. Sirius had paused before sitting down dejectedly and resuming his doodling.

"I'M FREE," Sirius sang was they walked out of their potions final, flinging papers into the air.

"Sirius, you need these for next semester," Remus pointed out.

"Oh, goddamnnit," Sirius muttered before dropping to his knees and picking everything up again.

"How do you think you did, Harry?" James asked as he helped Sirius pick up his paper.

"Er, alright, I've never been good at potions, but Remus really helped me learn the material." Harry said with a grin.

"I'm sure you did great," Remus said warmly. "Slughorn chose one of the potions we'd reviewed as well, so we were lucky."

"I didn't recognize it," Sirius said. "But I don't care because we're done! Time to head home and get some of Mrs. Potter's good cooking!"

"Not quite yet," James said. "We still have the ball this evening. Speaking of which, I've got a lot to do before then. I'll see you guys later, I've got to get ready and set everything up."

"What to you guys want to do for the time being?" Remus asked.

"We're free men," Sirius said with a laugh and thew his arm over Harry's shoulders. "We can do anything we'd like!"

Harry stiffened a little as Remus and Sirius continued to discuss what they should do next. Hearing Sirius talking about being a 'free man' and not knowing what that would mean to him in only a few years time. It was painful to know the future, it was almost like being cursed. It sent Harry spiraling into depression that he had only recently been trying to drag himself out of.

"What's wrong, Harry?" Remus asked.

"Oh, nothing, just tired." Harry answered honestly. "It's been a long week."

"How about we go relax, maybe play some wizard's chess." Remus suggested with a smile. Harry nodded, fondly remembering Christmas time games of chess with Ron. They played for a few hours in the common room by the fire and talked about what they were getting everyone for Christmas.

"I haven't been able to go get anything yet," Harry admitted. This was partially because he had skipped all the other opportunities to go to Hogsmeade, but also because he had very little money of his own.

"We could all go to Hogsmeade before we leave," Remus suggested.

"I, er… I actually haven't got any money." Harry said awkwardly. "But, it's ok, you guys don't have to get me anything, I'll get you something later on if I can."

"Don't worry about it Harry," Remus said kindly, holding up a hand to dismiss Harry's awkward rambling. "I don't need a gift in return, and neither does anyone else. We'd love to get you something anyways. We all understand your position."

"Yeah," Sirius said nodding. Harry met Sirius's eyes and he knew what he was thinking about. Sirius had run away from home and been disowned by his family. The Potter's were the one's supporting him now, but Harry doubted Sirius had much money that he considered his own.

"I'll figure out something to get you guys," Harry said. "I'd feel too bad having only you guys get me things and me having nothing. Especially for James's parents, I mean, I've never even met them before and they're opening their home to me. It would be rude of me not to bring anything…"

"They'll understand," Remus reassured him. "The Potter's are the kindest family I've ever met."

"They let me into their house permanently, they have to have a kind heart to do that," Sirius laughed.

"I think it's about time to get ready for the ball," Remus said glancing at his watch. "We picked up some dress robes for you by the way, so don't give us excuses at to why you can't come."

Harry smiled shyly.

"You guys shouldn't have done that," he muttered.

"Like we said before, it wouldn't be Christmas without you, Har." Sirius said ruffling his hair.


End file.
